Let Down Your Hair
by SafirelV
Summary: There's a reason why he doesn't leave the castle.  ArtemisxWally, AU
1. Prologue

**Hi :) since this is just a prologue, you can just skip it and start reading from chapter one. The only purpose of this chapter is to kind of set up the background since this is an AU fairytale story. Of course, if you're interested, you can read this chapter to see how I interpret Artemis's family in my AU. Thanks!**

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Girlish squeals escape the bar as Paula walked past it, trying to hurry back to the cottage. Her parents couldn't bear it if she were late since apparently they'd sent for a young man to come and meet her. Paula couldn't care less about meeting the guy, she was sure he'd have too much facial hair and smell like rotten eggs, so she decided she could stop by the bar for a little while and see what exactly was happening. Their town was usually quiet and the bar was usually only occupied by one person, the bartender.

But today as she pushed open the wooden doors to check out what was happening, the bar was probably at maximum capacity. And there was a stranger with bright blonde hair sitting at a table crowded with girls. They were some of the prettiest girls in town too. Paula started to turn and look away, but he managed to get eye contact while she was about to leave. His dark eyes held her gaze, mysterious, amused, dreamy…

He sent the other girls away and beckoned her to join him. The attractive stranger in town wanted _her_ to sit with him. And so she did.

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><p>Laurence Crock was his name. And when Paula introduced him to her parents they were delighted she'd finally met a boy. They spent the summer exploring the town and even the countryside, riding horses, going to the bakery, picking flowers, and running around chasing each other. They spent the winter snuggled up by the warm fire, reading books, sledding, and drink hot cocoa. And after another year went by like this, Laurence proposed. Paula was overjoyed, and her parents we so happy for her. And so the two were married.<p>

They left the town to live in one of the larger cities in the kingdom. Laurence had quite a fortune left to him by his parents, so they had a large house and more than enough to live on. After two years they had their first daughter with hair as dark as her mother's. They named her Jade. Their second daughter had the prettiest blonde hair, exactly the shade of her father's, but she had her mother's eyes. And Laurence decided that she would be named Artemis.

As the two daughters grew up, Laurence became more distant, abruptly going off traveling, without an explanation. When Jade turned ten he started taking her with him, Artemis was six. One day Paula finally had enough. So she confronted her husband.

It took two days to finally convince him to tell her the truth.

He worked for the League of Shadows, an evil cult whose name was known all over the kingdom, but no one knew where to find them. Of course, it wasn't voluntarily. They'd taken him when he was a child, and he had only tried to break away from the cult when he started his family. But they threatened to take away his daughter if he did. He had started taking Jade with him when they told him they wanted to train his daughter or they'd lock up his family in a tower. He had no choice.

Paula proposed they run away and live on a farm in the countryside. It seemed plausible at the time, so they moved without a goodbye and grew their own food and raised their own livestock. Laurence never went back. But it was only a matter of time before the League of Shadows found them. And that day happened to be when Artemis turned fifteen.

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><p><strong>Characters: Paula Crock (Artemis's mom), Laurence Crock (Artemis's dad), Jade (Artemis's sister), Artemis<strong>


	2. Foreign Affairs

**Disclaimer: This story is written purely for entertainment. A lot of the content is just silly, stupid stuff intended to make readers laugh or smile. Or maybe think that it's stupid. (I'm not very good at writing humorous things?) Anyway, most of this story is highly unrealistic- but it's intended unrealism. So if you're looking for a serious story... I suggest checking out my other Spitfire story- Beyond the Limit. A story by another author works too, there are plenty of good authors on this website :) Anyway, I'll stop babbling and let you move on to the story! I hope you enjoy it! (I probably could've just cut this disclaimer short by saying "I don't own Young Justice". Oh well.)**

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><p><strong>I. Foreign Affairs<strong>

**Wally**

"Prince Wallace! Your father's been looking everywhere for you!" a random castle servant said to the prince.

He couldn't bother to keep up with everyone's names since servants were constantly being fired and hired and moved to work in different parts of the castle. But as long as he knew which servant did what, he was fine. The one time he messed up by accidentally telling the chambermaid to cook him some venison to eat, and she stared at him blankly making him feel embarrassed, which isn't very princely, so he decided from then on he'd pay more attention to who did what.

He followed the random castle servant to the dining hall and entered, not expecting to see the dining table completely filled with a bunch of strangers and some familiar faces. He scanned the room and noticed that the Duke, Bruce Wayne, and his son, Richard were there as well as Lady Diana, his uncle Prince Barry, aunt Princess Iris, his parents, and a Baron, Baroness, and a few more lords and ladies.

"Ah, my son Prince Wallace has arrived. Princess Linda, I'd like you to meet him. He is my one and only heir," the king announced.

Wally looked at the girl that the king was talking too, and immediately his heart stopped. No, he wasn't feeling any love, or anything of that sort. It was more like he'd just realized why he'd been so rudely beckoned away from his afternoon run to come meet a princess they probably expected him to marry. But on the other hand, she was pretty with long dark hair and blue eyes. Still.

Wally took his place at the table and everyone started to make conversation politely. Princess Linda turned to talk to another girl on her right a lot, a girl with pale skin, freckles, brown eyes, and red hair. She was kind of pretty. Wally on the other hand, tried to use hand signals to communicate with his best friend, the Duke's son. Richard Grayson Wayne was rumored to be the illegitimate son of Duke Bruce Wayne and some lady who must've died otherwise she'd take care of the kid. But the truth was, his parents had died at a circus the Duke had attended, so he took the kid in and Wally immediately made friends with him.

So far the hand signal thing wasn't working out well though. All Wally saw was spastic hand movements until the Duke looked worriedly at his son and whispered something, making Richard immediately immobile. Wally slumped his shoulders, giving up on communicating with his friend and instead focusing on his food. It was extra fancy today since there were foreign royalty visiting. Which was pretty awesome.

So Wally ate four slices of prime rib, two rolls of bread, three crab legs, and drank a bowl of soup until he remembered the princess and immediately felt self-conscious. He looked up and caught eye contact with her. Then he hastily turned away, accidentally knocking his glass of water down and spilling it onto the Baron's lap. Wally sheepishly looked at his dad and finally decided to keep his eyes down the rest of the meal.

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><p>"You completely embarrassed yourself in front of the princess!" Richard teased Wally.<p>

Wally glared and continued walking forward, still undecided where he was going exactly as his best friend followed him.

"And she was pretty too!" Richard continued.

Wally huffed and suddenly stopped. He turned and looked out at the square, where the knights were training. He wanted to be a knight once, but that was a distant dream. Besides, he still got to learn sword-fighting as a prince… but it was more for show than actual combat.

"Look! There's Sir Roy, and Sir Clark, and Sir Oliver! Sir Clark is the best knight! He's been on so many quests and everyone says that he finally found a girl to marry. Sir Roy's the newest knight, he was trained by Sir Oliver, who's married to Dinah," Richard explained.

Somehow, that kid always seemed to know everything going on at the castle and everyone at the castle. Maybe he was better fit to be prince than Wally ever would be.

"Hey do you want to see if we can go find Conner? Then maybe we can go find the girls and take them on a walk," Richard suggested.

Conner was a squire, a knight in training, and one of their closest friends. Actually, Sir Clark was training him… supposedly. There was a rumor that Conner was his illegitimate son and therefore he wanted as little to do with the kid as possible.

It wasn't that hard to find Conner. He was petting a lost puppy at the west gate of the castle. He seemed to like animals. He turned and saw the prince and the duke's son, and got up hastily and bowed.

"You don't have to you know, you're our friend. Besides, no one's here to make sure you're bowing or anything," Wally told him, feeling more important than he wanted to.

"We just want to see if you want to go meet the princess and her lady in waiting," Richard added.

So Conner decided to follow them having nothing else to do. He came under one condition though: the puppy got to come too.

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><p><strong>Characters: Wally, Wally's parents, Bruce Wayne (Batman), Linda (Wally's wife in comics), Megan (Miss Martian), Richard Grayson (Robin), Roy (Red Arrow), Clark (Superman), Oliver (Green Arrow), Dinah (Black Canary), Conner (Superboy), puppy (AU version of Wolf), Barry Allen (Flash), Iris Allen (Flash's wife), Diana (Wonder Woman)<strong>

**-Safirel**


	3. Trapped

**II. Trapped**

**Artemis**

She really hadn't been in there that long. As far she knew, it'd only been two days. But the creepy guys in the weird costumes had grabbed her, tied her up, blindfolded her, and the next thing she knew she was somehow a hundred feet off the ground in a tower with only a window. It was a large window; she could easily jump out- if she was planning to splatter her bones and blood all over the ground. How they got her in there, she had no idea.

But she figured it was better not to ask anyone since it seemed like they came from an evil cult with all this creepy witchcraft stuff going on- and she wasn't planning to be the experimental guinea pig of a witch. Besides, they fed her. If she went to sleep, when she woke up there'd somehow be food on the small wooden table in the tower room.

Sleeping wasn't exactly fun though. She hadn't slept for the first twenty-four hours, just lying awake and panicked on a hay-stuffed mattress. And finally she'd crashed while in the middle of crying.

It was a good thing she slept though, otherwise she'd probably be starving. When she woke up, sunlight was streaming through the window, which was actually more of a hole in the gray stonewall since there was no way to shut it. And the tiny, sad wooden table stood in the corner of the room with a dish of corn and mashed potatoes on it.

Artemis was slightly confused as to why they fed her though. What did these people (if they were in fact people) want with her if they didn't want to kill her? Why would they want to kill her anyway? It wasn't like there was anything particularly interesting about her except for the fact that she lived on an isolated farm and had never talked to anyone except for her mom, sister, and dad. And the occasional farm animal when she got bored. When she got _really_ bored.

She sighed and finished eating up the rest of the mashed potatoes. If they were poisoned, she didn't really care. She'd die anyway from starvation since it wasn't like anyone could find her here. She'd looked out the window and all she saw was a forest, and a few towers sticking up from the trees far away. That would be the castle, her sister had told her that the castle was a giant fortress made from gray stone and towered over everything around it.

When the food was gone, Artemis finished up examining her surroundings. She hadn't gotten a good look before since she'd arrived at night, and when it was daytime, she'd been crying and too scared and sad to look at the room, and then she'd fallen asleep. So now she saw that the room was small and circular. The floor was made out of the same material as the walls, but the ceiling was made of wood. Besides the "bed" and the table, there was a small wooden stool, an old faded rug, and a trunk. Obviously the stool and the rug didn't hold much interest to her, so she opened up the trunk to see what she'd find inside.

There wasn't much- a hairbrush, one extra set of clothes, a book, some chalk, and a roll of string.

She shut the trunk after looking at the book and seeing that it was written in Latin, a language she couldn't read. And then she sat down on the "bed".

She was pretty sure she was going to go insane if she didn't find something productive to do. Maybe she could take to thinking, after all, she seemed to have plenty of time for that. On the farm she was always tending to the animals, cleaning, cooking, learning everything her mother decided she needed to learn. So she never had much time to think. Or…

Artemis opened up the trunk again, excitedly. She pulled out the piece of chalk and looked at the dull, uninteresting, gray wall. Then she rushed over to the window and looked at the view she had. She spotted the tallest towers of the castle that peeked out above the trees and studied it for a while. Then she watched the fluffy white clouds drift aimlessly in the sky. They were so free… but she had a task to complete, so she'd philosophize later, now, it was time to draw the scenery.

She chose a spot on the wall and put the chalk down, starting to draw the flag on the top of one of the castle towers.

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><p><strong>Chapter two is complete!<strong>

**Character(s): Artemis**

**Thank you to all of you who reviewed the prologue and chapter one! Thanks for the support and encouragement in my story. I hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter, since I'm kind of writing it for you to enjoy :)**

**So tell me what you think with a review and I'll keep on writing ^^**

**-Safirel**


	4. Left Out

**III. Left Out**

**Wally**

The girls were exploring the garden- with the supervision of one of the foreign guards and a foreign ambassador's son.

Now that Wally wasn't so irritable for being called away from his running for prospects of marriage, he could totally see himself with this girl. She was pretty, clear skin, large eyes colored with a beautiful shade of dark blue with flecks of different shades of blue in them, and long, dark - almost black – hair that was twisted into a curly updo at the moment.

Actually, now that he thought about it, his best friend had blue eyes and black hair… and so did Lady Diana… and Sir Clark… and Conner…

And science says it's highly uncommon for people to have those two traits. Maybe it was something about living in castles. That had to be it.

Wally presented himself in a very gentlemanly way when he approached the princess, bowing deeply and his two friends following in his stead.

"Princess," he greeted.

"Your highness," she replied, smiling.

Her smile was nice enough, but it seemed more like a polite smile than a genuine one.

"This is the ambassador's son, Kaldur. I'd like you to make his acquaintance," the princess continued.

"Nice to meet you," Richard greeted enthusiastically.

Conner, on the other hand, was afraid of speaking out of turn, and so he kept his eyes trained on the ground and pet the small puppy, too shy to even look at the two girls.

"This is Richard, he's the duke's son. And this is Conner, he's a squire," Wally introduced his two friends.

"Oh? Well this is Megan, my lady-in-waiting," the princess finished up the introductions.

Well, not quite. The guard was still unnamed at this point.

Not that anyone cared. Except Richard. Richard had to know everyone's names. _Everyone's._

So he looked at Wally pointedly, who by now would know what his friend wanted.

"Um… what's your guard's name?" Wally asked, not really caring, but wishing to satisfy Richard so he wouldn't bother him later.

"My guard…? Well if you really want to know, he's Wilcox," Princess Linda replied, slightly puzzled.

"Okay. So Princess Linda… do you want to walk with me? I could give you a private tour of the gardens," Wally offered.

Linda looked at Megan, trying to decide whether she wanted to go with the Prince alone or not. Megan shrugged and looked over at Conner, then became distracted by the puppy he held in his hands. So Linda looked at Kaldur, who humbly told the princess to do as she liked. The guard just followed whatever instructions Linda gave. And so she finally, hesitantly, joined Wally.

They passed by a couple of thorny rose bushes, the dark, blood-red colors of the roses standing out against the green leaves.

"You sure know how to make an impression on a lady," Linda suddenly said.

"What?"

"Well, at lunch, most boys don't eat quite so much when a princess is around, and they most definitely don't spill drinks on Barons."

Wally was unsure of how to react, but Linda looked amused, and so he let her continue to talk.

"If that was you restraining yourself from eating, I do hope you don't… add too many pounds to yourself. I don't want a fat husband."

"Don't worry, I run a few miles everyday, that's why I eat so much. But I can't run right after I eat otherwise the food'll just regurgitate and-"

Wally stopped talking when he realized the princess looked rather uncomfortable when he mentioned puking. Even though he used the more sophisticated word "regurgitate". That was what scientists said when they talked about how mother birds puked food into their babies' mouths to feed them. But apparently princesses turned pale when they thought about wastes coming out of people, so Wally changed the conversation to a different topic.

"Do you have any dreams, Linda?"

"Pardon? Dreams?"

"Yes, like… did you ever think about being able to do anything, and what would it be?"

"Oh. Hopes never fulfilled you mean? Well… actually no. I like my life how it is. I couldn't ask for anything more."

"Really?"

"Yes! Except…"

"Except…?"

"I don't feel comfortable talking about this with you."

"It's alright, after all, if we're destined to be married-"

"That's just it. Oh, excuse me, I shouldn't interrupt."

"No, it's fine, go ahead."

"Well if you're sure… I've always dreamed about marrying a hero, a handsome prince with a gallant steed who has gone on adventures and quests and fought monsters and dragons and saved children and women. That's what I've dreamed about."

Linda suddenly turned away, embarrassed. She seemed to shrink a little bit, wondering if she'd offended Wally at all since he obviously wasn't a _hero_.

"Then that's what I intend for you to have," Wally stated.

Linda looked taken aback for a second, but she realized what Wally was offering to do- become the hero she wanted to marry.

"You don't have to," she pleaded, feeling guilty.

But he wanted to impress this beautiful girl, and since her parents wanted her to marry him (otherwise they wouldn't have sent her here) and his parents wanted him to marry her (otherwise they wouldn't have invited her here), then he would at least let her have her dream.

After all, his dream was to be a knight.

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><p>"Wait, so you're just going to go riding off looking for a quest? Just because you want to impress the princess?" Richard clarified.<p>

"Yep."

"Even though you barely know her?"

"Yep."

"Even though your parents don't know?"

"Yep."

"… I'm _so _in."

Wally led his horse, Flash, out of the stable and secured a saddle and some reins to him. He put the bags he'd packed over the horse's back and waited for Richard to get his own horse, Shadow.

"You sure you want to face your dad's wrath when we get back?" Wally asked out of concern.

"If we come back heroes as you plan, then the wrath will be nonexistent. Don't worry about it Wallace!"

"… Don't call me that."

"And we're off!"

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><p><strong>Conner<strong>

It took him four hours to realize neither of his friends were anywhere to be found in the castle. Although he was a squire and supposed to be training all hours of the day, Sir Clark never taught him anything, and he didn't want to humiliate himself in the training arena when he was still at a beginner's level, so Conner usually hung out with his friends, or tried to find some other knights or squires to learn snippets of the things they learned.

But today Richard and Wally weren't in the castle. And the knights had begun questing season.

So Conner felt a little dejected since he was the only squire not invited by the knight who trained him to go questing, so he decided to continue caring for the small puppy he'd found, naming it "Puppy".

"Hi Conner, how's Puppy?"

Conner leaped up, startled. He turned and saw Megan behind him, and Kaldur.

"Oh…. Um… he's… fine."

"Oh. That's good," Megan replied, seating herself next to him on the grass.

Puppy wasn't allowed inside the castle, so Conner had to play with him outside.

Kaldur joined them, and laid out some dinner for them to eat.

"Princess Linda's dining with the other royals today, and I wasn't exactly invited. Neither was Kaldur so we decided to join you," Megan explained.

But the prince wouldn't be at dinner tonight.

"Oh," Conner replied.

They sat in silence, occasionally munching on some bread.

As the light faded from the sky, the pink sunset shone brightly, contrasting the blue sky. Conner turned and finally looked at Megan. Instead of the occasional glance, he _looked_ at her.

And she was beautiful. Her orange hair glowed in the fading light of day and her eyes were bright and full of excitement and joy. She seemed like a happy person in general.

Conner turned and looked at Kaldur.

"Is he… courting you?"

Megan seemed momentarily surprised by the question, but then laughed.

"Oh no, he's like a brother to me!"

Conner smiled contently. Maybe being left out from his friends' journey wouldn't be so bad after all.

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><p><strong>And so chapter three comes to a conclusion.<strong>

**Characters: Wally, Linda, Conner, Richard, Megan, Kaldur (Aqualad), Wilcox (random guard from Belle Reeve)**

**And what exactly are those two boys doing anyway?**

**It's not like Wally officially found a quest. He just randomly decided to run away and magically overnight become a hero. And his best friend tagged along. But they left poor Conner behind :(**

**Well you'll just have to keep reading to find out :D**

**Once again, thank you to all my reviewers, and to all who read my story and enjoyed it ^^**

**-Safirel**


	5. Isolation

**IV. Isolation**

**Artemis**

She was about to go insane. She hadn't talked to anyone for over a week, as far as she knew. It was hard to keep track of time when her sleeping habits were so strange and she was trapped in a tower with no way out.

Of course, she was still being fed. She wondered if it was weird that she didn't know who provided the food, yet she ate it anyway. Not that she did anything normal anymore…

Artemis thought for while about who had captured her and why. It seemed logical that the king would have the resources to build this tower, but it wasn't like he would want anything specifically from her.

She wondered for a moment what the king was really like anyway. Her parents never talked about him. Neither had her sister. Her dad and Jade were the only ones who ever left the farm. Artemis had left four times in her life- once when she was six her parents took her and her sister to a festival in the nearby town for a kids art show. When she was nine they took her to a traditional celebration for the kingdom, but she'd been so shy and refused to speak the whole time. The last time she'd left the farm was when she was thirteen and her mom decided to take her to town to buy her a dress since she was a teenager now. Before then, her dad always brought cloth from his journeys for the women in the family to make clothes. Actually, that still happened, but when she was thirteen she purchased her first and only dress made by someone else.

And this was the fourth time she'd left the farm.

She examined the skirt of the dress she was wearing. It was the gray dress with the purple stitching that she'd made last year. She actually really did like the dress, but she suddenly didn't want to wear it. It made her feel like she actually fit in the tower with a dress that matched the color of the drab walls. So she went back to the trunk and pulled out the other dress.

It was surprisingly pretty, maybe even _too_ pretty.

It was made of a silky green fabric, the shade of the dark green leaves on trees, but it shimmered in the light and would reflect a lighter color, changing shades of green and accenting her blonde hair.

Strangely, for the short period of time she'd been stuck in the tower, her hair had started to grow abnormally fast. She'd go to bed and wake up with her hair maybe twice as long as it was before, which was extremely terrifying since she was pretty sure if any rats were in there they'd start making nests in her hair, or if birds decided to fly through the window, they'd pull out her hair and carry it to the trees and make nests there.

She really _was_ going a little crazy.

Artemis picked up the brush in the trunk and started to brush her hair. It had a healthy glow to it still, and didn't seem the least bit dirty. Maybe she was hallucinating. She pulled it up into a ponytail, but it trailed on the ground still. It had already been long before… but now…

She glared at the mass of golden hair and wondered if it was useful for anything except tripping her. She sighed and plopped down on the bed.

She needed to get out of here. Her parents were probably worried sick and who knows what her sister was up to? The last conversation the two had wasn't very comforting since Jade was talking about running away since she hated living on the farm and stuff like that. If Jade really did leave though, what about their parents? How would they feel with their children missing? Besides, it was clear that the captors had put something in her water to… enchant her hair or whatever it did. And she wasn't exactly enjoying the experimentation on her. Or the isolation. Or any of this in fact.

She was definitely _not_ going to wait around for Prince Charming to come up out of nowhere and take her away from this dreadful place. No, she was more independent than that. Forget the damsel-in-distress and the oh-so-handsome-chivalrious-knight-come-to-claim-the-beautiful-girl. This wasn't a fairytale. This was a tangled web of lies that led to the kidnapping of Artemis and the isolation of Artemis and the worrying of Laurence and Paula Crock. That much, Artemis had deduced herself. And she was so _not_ going to make someone else solve her problems for her.

She hung her head out the window and draped her hair out to see what would happen. The wind blew the golden locks against the stone structure she was trapped in and the sun made it shimmer. Hm… would it work as a signaling beacon maybe? It was extremely long now, Artemis hadn't realized how long it was exactly until then. But it went halfway down the building, it wouldn't take long before it'd be able to reach the ground. What was the purpose of having extremely long hair though?

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><p><strong>Richard<strong>

Richard was quite certain that Wally had no idea what he was planning to do after they'd ridden their horses out of town into the countryside. He didn't want to challenge his friend's ego by asking him if he knew what he was doing, instead, he thought it'd be better to suggest they stop at an inn to stay for the night. After all, this was the fourth time Wally had been out of the castle. When he went running, he'd run around the castle grounds, so he never left.

The first time he'd left was when he was six and taken to visit his mother's sister in another kingdom. The second time was when he was eight and he was visiting the town. The third time was when he was twelve and going hunting for the first time. But after that failed hunt, his dad decided he'd be better off just staying in the castle. Wally wasn't exactly an ideal prince with a perfect physique and extremely handsome features and athleticness built into him. Besides the running. That was something athletic he _could_ do.

Richard on the other hand was an acrobat, so sometimes he'd help the court jester with his routines to show off if any foreigners came. A court jester who could do backwards flips while juggling and telling jokes was a pretty impressive court jester.

"Hey Wally? It's getting kind of late. Let's stop for the night," Richard suggested, nodding towards a brightly lit inn.

Wally's stomach growled a little bit, and he finally agreed, thinking that maybe he'd find some food there. He tied the horses down and took his satchel with the money he'd brought and clothes and water. There was some bread too, just in case. He _always_ had emergency food.

The two friends entered the inn in the unfamiliar town and all eyes were on them. They'd forgotten that their clothes were a little bit finer than the average citizen of the kingdom. The two could almost feel the thoughts of the goons who probably thought they could ambush the young teens and rob them of their possessions. What a joke. Richard's paranoid father had him trained in self-defense, and Wally was too fast for anyone to catch him since he ran so much.

Richard started to talk to the manager about getting a room when he noticed something. Or _someone_ more like it. There was a man with shifty eyes, but trying to maintain a seemingly invisible presence, pretending he wasn't there by keeping his hood over his face and remaining silent in a dark corner. But Richard decided not to stare so the creepy man wouldn't think he was noticed, and anyway, Wally was about to get himself into trouble.

"Come on Wally, a room's ready," Richard stated, annoyed, as he pulled his friend's arm away from two girls who were scantily clad.

"But Riccchhharrrddddd!" Wally begged.

"No. Those are prostitutes, come on, we need to sleep. Don't forget you have a fiancé already," Richard replied firmly, continuing to drag his friend towards the stairs leading to the inn rooms.

"I'm-not-tired-yet," Wally slurred his speech.

Richard stopped in his tracks and looked his friend in the eye.

"Are you drunk?" he asked directly.

"Huh?"

"Did you drink anything?"

"Sommeee… millkkk…"

"Well then. They must've spiked your drink. Come _on_ Wally," Richard started dragging Wally again.

He took one last glance around the room before heading up the stairs. Creepy man was gone.

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><p><strong>Here's the fourth chapter :) Did you notice it was a double chapter? :O Artemis AND Wally (Well, RobinRichard too, since it's sort of indirectly in his POV) in the same chapter!**

**I think I'll start doing more of that.**

**Characters: Artemis, Wally, Richard, creepy man (will be revealed soon, not an OC)**

**Anyway, this isn't the _best_ chapter I've written, but I'm satisfied with it. Tell me what _you_ think in a review :)**

**-Safirel**


	6. Discovery

**V. Discovery**

**Wally**

"Uhgnn…" Wally grumbled, rising out of bed.

"What the… where am I?" he asked, the shock noticeable in his voice.

Richard got up off of a chair in the corner of the small, dark, dingy room with only a small dirty window, grimy gray walls, and a wooden floor caked with dirt.

The room lacked furniture. There was only the small (uncomfortable) bed, and the chair that Richard must've slept in during the night.

"Well, last night you got drunk, hung out with prostitutes, and kept hugging me. The extreme physical contact was unnecessary, and I would've severely hurt you if you weren't the prince and my best friend. But didn't your parents ever tell you about _not_ taking drinks from other people? By the way, I couldn't sleep last night until you suddenly crashed because you were really creeping me out by watching me and laughing at sudden intervals and rambling on about nonsensical things that you probably didn't even understand yourself. I recall you saying something about a bunny rabbit's whiskers and how they use them as ways of communication because they're really antennas that let them speak telepathically. You were being rather difficult last night," Richard explained, slightly irritated.

Wally got out of bed, but sat down again immediately, feeling a sudden throbbing in his head. He grabbed onto his hair in anguish and felt dizzy.

"Hangover?" Richard asked, amused.

"I was _not_ drunk last night!" Wally exclaimed in defense.

"Then explain to me how it scientifically makes sense that rabbits use their whiskers to communicate telepathically again! I don't think I understood you the first time. Oh wait, I'll never understand you if you stand firmly on that side of the argument. Not that I believe anyone was arguing the use of a rabbit's whiskers," Richard mumbled.

He left the room to get water for Wally, who was kind of disappointed about the progress of their journey so far. All they'd managed was to find an inn… and other things that Wally didn't wish to think about. Maybe Richard was right. Maybe Wally really was irresponsible and the journey would've already been declared a complete failure last night. But it was a good thing he had his best friend with him. Otherwise there'd be no hope for their mission.

Wally looked out the window with its grease and grime and brown stains (who knew where these came from?) on it. The sun was just beginning to rise. Wally decided that his next step would be to decide what to do. Maybe if he ran into a random villager, he could talk to the random villager, and the random villager would have a quest for him because somehow the random villager would know that he was the chosen one! … He was _totally_ the chosen one.

"I saddled the horses and got you some water. Ready to go?" Richard asked, walking back inside the room.

Wally turned to face his friend and grinned mischievously. Richard frowned, trying to decide whether Wally had somehow gotten himself into more trouble during the three minutes he was gone.

"I know what we're going to do! Let's find a random villager and see if they have any quests for us to go on!" Wally exclaimed excitedly.

Richard almost face palmed. But he decided that face palming was girly, therefore unmanly, and he only did manly things. For instance, he drank his coffee black. Because black coffee is manly.

Instead Richard crossed his arms, grimaced, and shook his head.

"Well come on, we don't have all day," Wally urged, leaving the room.

They left the inn (Richard stopped though, to check out, since Wally didn't know they were supposed to). Wally mounted his horse, and Richard did the same. The two steeds were beautiful horses really. Flash was a reddish-brown Throughbred, quick, agile, beautiful horse. Shadow was a dark black stallion that had a graceful gallop and was stunning when he cantered.

Although they were two very different horses, they seemed to get along. After all, they never said otherwise.

"Hey, let's go ask her!" Wally proposed when he saw a beautiful girl with large blue eyes and curly blonde hair.

"You just want to talk to her because you think she's pretty," Richard stated, rolling his eyes.

But they led their horses up to her, and to be gentlemanly, dismounted when approaching.

"Hello Miss, I-" Wally started.

"Tim! I didn't expect- oh. Wait. Nevermind, I- I um, confused you with someone else," the girl said, conversation directed towards Richard.

"Uh, I'm… not Tim. Obviously."

"It's just- you look like him."

"Thanks… I think."

"Anyway! I'm Wally, and he's Richard," Wally interrupted.

"I'm… Stephanie… why are you talking to me?" she asked.

"Well, we were wondering if you had any quests for us!"

"…Not that I know of. Am I supposed to have quests prepared to give to any strangers who ask me to send them on a mission?"

"Sorry for bothering you," Richard mumbled quickly before pulling his friend away and back to their horses.

They rode out of town, kind of embarrassed, but Wally mostly felt dejected. He didn't have a mission still. And that girl was probably very confused and thought that Wally and Richard were strange.

"New plan. Act like we know what we're doing and maybe something will come up," Richard suggested.

Actually, that wasn't such a bad plan. Wally was beginning to like it. Especially since that was what he did ninety percent of the time.

They looked at the dark woods ahead of them. There wasn't any going around them, it'd take too long. So Wally was prepared to go _through _them.

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

Artemis had successfully braided her hair so that it was relatively not bothersome. She'd have liked it if there were any scissors in the tower, but unfortunately, her captors didn't provide scissors. They did, however, provide the stones that the tower was made out of. And Artemis kicked out a good chunk of the crumbling rock out of the wall. It was sad really, she felt like maybe the whole tower would fall down. But it seemed like that was the only weak point.

She took the wooden stool and unscrewed out the four legs. Then she set to work. She put a sharper piece of the rock to the wood and started to carve. This was going to take a while. If her captors came, she could hide everything inside the trunk. They probably weren't going through her stuff. And if they saw that the stool was missing they'd probably think she just tossed it out the window or something. In a fit of anger.

And so she would carve until the task was completed.

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

The forest was not a normal forest at all. The whole time Wally and Richard had been there, there hadn't been a sound. No animals scurrying across the forest floor, no birds singing songs or darting across treetops, no frightened deer looking up and getting startled by the noise of horses walking slowly through the thick wooded area.

Richard knew something was wrong. Wally did too, but they decided not to mention it. Instead they rode their horses in silence, wondering if bandits or something'd somehow kidnap them. It suddenly started raining, and lightning lit the sky in a bright light show while the thunder rolled and groaned in agony.

"Stop!" Richard suddenly hissed.

Wally stopped the horse and looked at his friend, puzzled. Richard put a finger to his lips and pointed the other hand through the trees. There was a fire. They'd really been riding for almost the whole day already. It was dark by the looks of what they could see of the sky. But there were… people gathered around the fire. They were dressed in strange clothing too. And they were chanting.

Wally's eyes widened when he saw something else. A person was being led up to the top of a rock, as if they were conducting some sick ceremony of execution or something. They forced him to look down at the ground. What were they doing? Then one of the main chanter guys got up and started chanting even louder and throwing strange powders into the fire and looked like he was about to do something to the poor, helpless man!

Wally, out of the goodness of his own heart, could _not_ let anything happen to that man. Actually, he just wanted to have a good story to impress Linda with, and the opportunity had just seemed to arise out of nowhere. Well, out of the scary, suspicious forest where chanting people resided, but whatever. It was a quest!

He ran in between the helpless man and the main chanting man after leaping off his horse. And got struck by lightning. It was weird. He didn't feel any pain, he remembered seeing the chanting man throw something at him the second the lightning hit. Did it protect him? What had happened? Did he even think this through? If he died while saving the man, sure it'd impress Linda, but _he'd be dead_. That wasn't the point of this. Even if Richard somehow ran away and got back to the castle to tell everyone what happened, Wally would be dead, and then he couldn't be Linda's awesome quest-fulfilling husband, because no one marries corpses.

But Wally wasn't dead. He merely blacked out and woke up a couple hours later, staring into the eyes of one of the creepy chanting people.

"Good morning," the guy said in a monotone voice.

"Augh! I mean- good… morning…" Wally replied, startled, freaked out, and creeped out.

"You passed out last night after interrupting our ceremony. You… leapt into the middle of it and absorbed the powers of the Lightning King that we were transferring to Divaar. Divaar did not get the powers though, because we had used all the power juice on you on accident. And the creator of the power juice was an elder of our tribe who is not able to make any more after the last batch and has promised to take the secret of the power juice to the grave," the man explained.

"Well, thanks for your hospitality… and power juice. But I have a quest to go on for a princess. Um… tell Divaar that I'm sorry for… absorbing his power juice. I thought you guys were… well… never mind," Wally decided better than telling the stranger he thought the tribe was going to kill this "Divaar".

"I'm afraid you don't understand the power juice. It gives you the powers of the Lightning King."

"I think you already explained that."

"The reason why we live in this reclusive forest is because outsiders do not understand the true powers of the Lightning King! We can never put the powers in their hands for this reason! You don't understand what great power you are wielding!"

"Well that's because I'm not a tribesman and no one has explained who the Lightning King is and what his powers are!"

"…The Lightning King holds the powers of speed. The power juice combined with the lightning bolt…"

"Gives me the power of running really fast…" Wally completed with realization.

"Yes. I'm Hadiir, by the way," the man introduced himself.

"I'm… Wally."

"Your friend was looking for you. He spent the night at our camp," Hadiir said.

They were no longer talking in raised voices.

"You have just stolen the powers of the Lightning King. You may be the last one to have these powers."

"…What do you expect me to do?"

"I can't expect anything from an outsider. But the Lightning King _did_ strike you… maybe he meant it to be that way. He has chosen _you _to pass his powers onto. Use them well," Hadiir decided with finality.

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

It was complete. She'd just carved a set of four arrows with sharp wooden tips with just a rock. They weren't very aerodynamic due to their poor structure, but after throwing them around the tower as if they were javelins, she was pretty sure they were decent. Now if only she had a bow… Her plan was to try and undo the stitching on her gray and purple dress and see if she can make a strong rope with the string. Then she'd tie it to one end of an arrow and launch the arrow into the table so it'd stick in well and would be strong enough to support her weight. Then she'd drape the rope out the window, climb down, and have three extra arrows if there were any enemies she encountered along the way. Who knew what she'd do then? She just needed to get out first.

Of course, the dress seams didn't come apart and the arrow never seemed to stick into the table. All that was left were a bunch of marks showing that she'd stabbed something sharp in the wooden table multiple times.

Artemis wasn't sure what to do anymore. Everything seemed impossible. She collapsed in a corner and stuffed her face into her knees.

_What you got if you ain't got love_

_the kind that you just want to give away_

_It's okay to open up_

_go ahead and let the light shine through_

_I know it's hard on a rainy day_

_you want to shut the world out and just be left alone_

_But don't run out on your faith_

_'Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand_

_What you've been up there searching for_

_forever is in your hands_

_When you figure out love is all that matters after all_

_It sure makes everything else _

_seem so small_

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

Wally and Richard left the tribe after saying sorry multiple times for interfering with tribal customs and things like that. Wally couldn't wait to try out his newfound powers (he _did_ feel a little more energetic, but Richard said it was all in his head), but he didn't want to do it in front of Divaar, who turned out to be the tribe's new leader.

So Richard and Wally continued riding their horses through the woods, looking for a clearing where Wally could run around without the threat of running into trees. It'd be hard to control the new powers if he didn't know how fast exactly he could run.

_It's so easy to get lost inside_

_a problem that seems so big at the time_

_it's like a river thats so wide_

_it swallows you whole_

_While you sit around thinking about what you can't change_

_and worrying about all the wrong things_

_time's flying by_

_moving so fast_

_you better make it count 'cause you can't get it back_

"Do you hear that?" Wally asked.

"Singing…?" Richard replied.

Wally nodded. They started heading towards the voice. It was beautiful really. A girl's voice. It was enchanting and seemed almost sad.

But they weren't expected to see what they did see. Instead of seeing a town like they thought they'd arrived at, it was a tower. A massive, tall, random tower in the middle of the forest.

* * *

><p><strong>Characters: Wally, Richard, Stephanie (Batgirl IIIRobin IV), Divaar (OC), Hadiir (OC)**

**Even though this was a really long chapter, it's not very believable.**

**Anyway the whole random villagers with quests was a reference to basically any RPG game. All you have to do it go up to them. And press 'A' or 'X' for them to give you a quest. Plus you get money from them and other items if you complete the quest usually. But too bad, Stephanie Brown can solve her own problems Wally. You should know that :P (she's Batgirl III/Robin IV for those of you who don't know that. And Tim is Robin III.)**

**The chanting tribespeople are all OC's. At least as far as I know. I mean, if you come across something that has Divaar and Hadiir in it, and they're both chanting tribespeople who believe in the powers of the Lightning King, then I seriously had no idea. Those names have little squiggly red lines under them anyway, but to me they sound like chanting tribespeople names.**

**The song that Artemis is singing is _So Small _by Carrie Underwood. I googled "songs about not giving up" and that was the first thing it came up with. So I used that. I am not about to go research songs from four thousand years ago about not giving up so pretend that somehow Carrie Underwood's song exists in this strange medieval universe where there are superheroes except they're princes and sons of ambassadors and dukes and trapped in towers and the medieval people talk like modern people. Yeah, this is totally an awesome universe :D**

**Back to the first thing I said- this chapter isn't exactly believable. I'm not really sure where I was going with the chanting tribespeople, but I guess it all worked out okay. And I promise the arrows that Artemis was making are not purely there just to fail and make her sad.**

**So on a final note- tell me what you thought of this chapter in a review :) and while you're at it, give me your opinion on whether I should bring the chanting tribespeople back, leave them out of this, or you don't really care. If I do bring them back though, it'll be brief, they are not going to become major characters in my story. Otherwise I could just go write myself a story about chanting tribespeople. I'm sure I could find a publisher for that :P**

**-Safirel**


	7. Meeting

**VI. Meeting**

**Artemis**

She stopped singing when she heard the voices. It was strange since she was sure she was in an isolated part of the woods, an isolated part of the isolated woods actually. The only people she'd heard inhabiting the area were chanting tribespeople, but their yelling was distant.

"Was the singing coming from here?"

"I'm pretty sure it was."

"But Richard! It's just one of the old watchtowers built a long time ago! No one uses them anymore. Besides, girls don't belong in them. Only soldiers."

"Like you said, it's abandoned. So maybe someone lives in there now?"

"Well the entrance is boarded up."

"Huh. That's weird."

"Hello! Is there anyone up there?"

"Shh! You don't know what type of people live up there Wally!"

"Relax, I got this. HELLO?"

Artemis peeked out the window slowly, keeping herself low so only the top of her head could possibly be seen. Her eyes peeked down to the ground and the second she saw moving… things, people, animals, whatever, she ducked down again.

"Yeah, um, so we heard you singing, and we're kind of lost in the woods. We _know _you're there though, no need to hide."

Artemis was pretty sure there were only two of them. Two… boys? What were they doing getting lost in the woods all by themselves?

"I can't get out of here," Artemis finally says, looking down.

It comes out as kind of a croak though since she hadn't talked in so long. She was pretty certain her singing was just as bad as her messed up voice, but after seeing the boys and talking to them, and having them hear her funny voice, she felt like hiding again. After all, she was a teenage girl.

"Wait, so you don't live here?" the one with the red hair asked.

"No. There's no door."

"Then what are you doing in there?" the same boy asked.

"Duh Wally! She was kidnapped," the shorter one with the black hair snapped, elbowing this "Wally".

"Um… hi… Wally. And-"

"I'm Richard," the littler boy yelled up to her.

"I'm Artemis."

Her hair slid out over the windowsill and hung over the tower.

"Woah! Is that… hair?" Wally asked, amazed and confused all at the same time.

Sure her hair was beautiful, but it was extremely long. How could she manage that being all kidnapped and stuff?

"Um… yeah. I think there's something they put in my water or something."

"Think it's strong enough to support weight?"

"…What are you planning to do?"

"Let down your hair and you'll see."

So Artemis shrugged, deciding there wasn't really a reason not to, besides the fact she'd have to braid it all over again later. But she took it out and hung it over the window, and to her surprise, it reached the ground.

"Well, this is some _long _hair," Richard observed.

"No way Einstein," Wally remarked sarcastically.

Richard rolled his eyes and pulled on the hair. Artemis frowned at them, but she couldn't feel any tugging.

"Do you think we could use it as a ladder… like a rope ladder?" Richard asked.

"Hm… we could use it as a simple machine maybe, see if she can make a pulley?" Wally decided.

"Um, the problem is that _I can't get out_. You don't need to find a way in," Artemis reminded them.

"Oh, right, uh… Is there nothing at all in there that could be useful?"

"Nope. Except… If I tossed this lousy bed out there as a safety net type of thing, just in case, do you think I could jump out?"

Artemis tossed the bed outside the window for them to see.

"Um… it's pretty lousy alright. Probably not. You'd die," Wally said directly.

"Well, then try to catch her," Richard stated.

"What?"

"Well you have powers of speed, you could run to the spot she's falling towards and catch her. That would brace her fall," Richard explained.

"I'm sorry, powers of speed?" Artemis asked.

"Escape now, explain later," Wally said, "Do you trust me?"

"To jump out a window? Trust _you_? Some guy I met just minutes ago? Of course not!" Artemis exclaimed.

"Well it's your only chance," Richard said, "Besides, you tossed your bed down here, where are you going to sleep tonight?"

Artemis sighed. This was horrible. She was kidnapped and finally some sign of hope came. And they had no idea what they were doing.

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

This girl was being difficult. Usually girls would be ecstatic at the chance to leap into his arms. After all, he _was_ the prince. What did she say her name was anyway? Artemis? What kind of name was that?

"So are you going to trust me?"

"If someone told you to leap out of a tower, would you do it?" she retorted.

"Of course not! But it's a different situation with you, there's no other way out!"

"Well I barely know you! You- THERE'S SOMETHING BEHIND YOU!"

Wally swerved around and came face to face with a ninja. He ran away, not really sure what else there was to do. Except… he forgot about his speed and crashed into a tree.

The ninja started to dart towards him, but an arrow flew out of the tower and pinned the ninja to the ground by his clothing.

"Woah! Nice aim!" Wally yelled.

"Thanks! There're more ninjas by the way!" Artemis replied.

"I'll take care of it!" Richard exclaimed.

He did an intricate series of flips as he kicked and backfisted ninjas who were closing in on the two boys. Well closing in on the two boys plus the girl if you counted someone who was way high up in a tower shooting down arrows.

"I'm down to my last arrow!" she yelled.

"There are like ten ninjas left though!" Wally shouted back.

Artemis pinned one more ninja down and Richard was engaged in combat with another. Wally was about to start attacking when a table fell from the sky and hit a group of eight ninjas.

"Okay, so we can discuss how she gets out of there again," Richard said, finishing off his ninja.

"Well all these ninjas have ropes… she can let down her hair and we send up a rope ladder that way, then she can tie it to something strong in the tower and climb down," Wally suggested.

So the two boys gathered all the rope and started tying the pieces together to make a rope ladder. Artemis waited patiently for them to yell to her that they'd tied the rope to her hair so she could pull it up.

Finally they were done.

"Ready!" Wally announced.

Artemis pulled all her long hair up and the rope along with it. She tied it to something inside the trunk and shut the trunk lid on it to hold the rope in place. Then she hung it out the window.

"It's not long enough!" Richard cried out.

"You'll have to climb down and jump, but from a lower point," Wally said.

With the rope she wasn't jumping as far down… She started to climb. Not a moment too soon either since more ninjas started arriving. She noticed this of course, and Wally looked out for movement just in case he needed to catch her. He saw a streak of golden hair in the air and ran towards her and caught her in his arms, then he put her on top of Flash and Richard mounted Shadow.

"I'll try to run through the woods- Richard, lead the way out of here!" Wally yelled, the ninjas were gaining on them.

Wally tried as hard as he could to navigate through the tangled web of trees. Surprisingly, he didn't hit very many of them, or trip that many times. But however often he stumbled, he was able to get back up quickly and keep up with Richard and Artemis. Before they'd run off though, she'd gathered up her hair and put it in a ponytail, which she then stuffed into an empty bag on the horse's side so it wouldn't get tangled in the trees.

"How are you possibly running that fast?" Artemis asked Wally as she guided Flash through the trees.

"Lightning King powers!" Wally exclaimed.

Artemis blinked at him and turned away. She probably thought he was insane or something. But insanity didn't explain why he could run so fast.

They emerged in a town finally. A town on the edge of the woods.

"We should stay at an inn tonight," Richard said, "Try to keep yourself under control though Wally."

Artemis looked at him confused, but decided not to worry about it and yawned and pulled her hair out to tie into a bun.

They checked into an inn and tied their horses up in one of the stables.

This time they didn't spend any time hanging out in the lobby or the bar. They went straight into the room that they were loaned. There were two beds in this room this time.

Artemis took the one farthest from the door. The second she laid down in the bed she was fast asleep.

"You're the prince, you get the bed again," Richard offered, heading for the chair.

"No, it's okay. You gave me the bed last time. Take it this time, to be fair," Wally said.

"Well you're the _prince_," Richard restated.

"And you're my best friend. You can't always be giving me the better things. You need some comfort to. That's an order. Take the bed," Wally commanded.

Richard sighed and got into the bed.

"At least try to enjoy it, don't make me feel bad about my decision," Wally told him.

"Alright," Richard replied and smiled.

They blew out the candles and were on the verge of falling asleep when-

Wally's stomach growled.

* * *

><p><strong>Characters: Artemis, Wally, Richard, ninjas<strong>

**So they finally met and Wally finally got a chance to use his Lightning King powers :D**

**Course Artemis is too busy throwing tables out of windows to notice.**

**Anyway, she's asleep when Wally and Richard discuss the fact that Wally's a prince. So will she ever find out? And does she realize that she's sharing a room in an inn with two teenage boys who are strangers? Oh well, they won't do anything to her, but still. Silly Artemis, growing up on a farm and being all naive.**

**So tell me what you think guys :D**

**-Safirel**

**P.S. If any of you are confused by my weird numbering system for chapters, the first chapter was a prologue, so in my mind it's _not_ chapter I. Chapter I starts on what FanFiction wants to call Chapter 2. So basically ch1 is really ch0, ch2 is really ch1, and so on. I hope this makes sense to you. Sorry for any confusion.**

**(Teaser for chapter VII: The mysterious man Wally and Richard saw in the town on the other side of the woods is back, but what does he want? One of the tribespeople has come to find Wally and Richard, but why? The ninjas are still chasing after the trio, but who is their leader? How is Artemis going to get back to her family since she doesn't know the geography of the kingdom, and the two boys don't know where she lives? And will Wally and Richard risk going back through the woods to get to the castle, or are they going to find another way around?)**


	8. The Plan

**VII. The Plan**

**Richard**

As always, he was the first one awake. He brushed his hand through his hair and pushed the blanket off of himself and sat up, looking out the window at the bright sliver of colorful light peeking over the horizon. It was barely sunrise. He glanced around the room and noticed the blonde girl sleeping in the other bed. And Wally was sleeping on the ground? Oh yeah, they found her last night and got attacked by ninjas, and Wally decided to take the floor since there were only two beds…

Richard got out of bed and gave Wally the blanket since he'd already sacrificed the luxury of the bed, and Richard didn't need a blanket anymore now that he was awake. He slipped on his shoes, straightened his clothes, and deftly walked over to the door without making the floor creak once. He opened the door carefully, but it still moaned with the screeching of hinges needing oiling. No matter, Artemis and Wally were still sleeping.

Richard walked through the corridor and stayed back, hidden by the wall when he came close to the lobby/bar area. It was good to take caution when in strange places, besides, if he was chased by ninjas yesterday, who says those ninjas aren't still chasing after Artemis?

He surveyed the room in his hidden corner, seeing nothing out of the ordinary- except for one thing. The cloaked man he'd seen the other night at the other inn was here. He sat by himself, facing a window, hood down, and a crossbow set down on the table.

"You can come out from behind the wall. You want to know who I am, don't you?"

The voice came from the cloaked man… but the cloaked man sounded… _feminine. _The cloaked man was a cloaked woman?

Richard slowly walked into the room. They were the only ones in there this early except for the bartender, the receptionist, and the stable boy who was getting ready for work.

"Well? Sit down," she gestured to a chair at the table she was seated at.

Richard pulled it out and sat down timidly, very aware of how easy it'd be for her to access her crossbow and shoot him in the face. She was smart. If he was sitting, he wasn't as much of a threat as he could be.

She sat with her arms crossed and examined him, trying to decide if he was a formidable opponent. She was dressed in purple and black, a black shirt with purple stitching on it, and black pants with purple stitching running down the sides, and a pair of leather black shoes on her feet. A quiver of purple arrows was hung over her back. Her dark black hair was draped over her shoulders and she leaned back comfortably in her chair, arms crossed to show her hostility. The only sound in the room was the clinking of glasses being washed by the bartender and the stable boy's feet shuffling across the room towards the door.

"Who are you and why have you been following me?" Richard finally asked.

"Well, you're direct, aren't you?" the woman's face broke into a smirk, "Why do you assume I'm following _you _anyway? Why couldn't I be following your friend, the _prince_, or maybe I'm following that mysteriously suspicious girl with the long hair and the ninja army chasing after her? What's so special about _you_?"

"Don't answer my questions with more questions. I asked first," Richard stated forcefully.

"I'm sorry, it's a habit of mine I get from- well, my significant other. Call me Huntress," she answered, lifting up her crossbow and examining it.

Richard tensed in his seat.

"Well, _Huntress_, you only answered one of my questions."

"Actually, you phrased it all in one question. I just answered part A."

"But you answered it with an alias."

"You never specifically asked for my real name. Not that I'd give it to you anyway."

Richard crossed his arms and looked at her discontentedly.

"Alright, fine, I'll answer part B. The duke did a good job of making sure no one found out he was The Vigilante for a long time, but I have connections that knew it was him. And if you hadn't noticed, I'm a vigilante of some sorts too. But you're his… sidekick I suppose I could call you," Huntress explained.

Richard narrowed his eyes at her, "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. But tell me, what would you want from me if I really was the… _sidekick_ of The Vigilante?"

"What would I want from you? Knowledge is power, anyone ever tell you that? Just wait, I'm going to need something from you soon enough," Huntress answered.

"Now you're just _trying _to be cryptic."

"I'll see you around Boy Wonder," Huntress finished, winking at Richard and leaving the table.

She pushed open the door, but turned around at looked at him one last time over her shoulder, "One last thing- the ninjas stole your horses last night."

She walked through the door and disappeared.

**Wally**

Wally yawned loudly as he woke up, stretching his arms and trying to pop his back. It was really uncomfortable sleeping on the ground. He was going to have to issue something about supplying inns with more beds, or maybe next time they'd rent two rooms. If there was a next time, they should probably head home now.

"Do you mind? I'm still trying to sleep," a girl's voice piped up.

Wally stood up and saw Artemis, the blonde girl they'd semi-rescued yesterday pulling the blankets over her head and facing away from him in her bed.

"Hey, it's already bright outside, the sun's shining!" Wally exclaimed.

"You're so _loud_," Artemis complained, but flipped the blanket over so she was no longer under it.

She was kind of pretty, especially when the light hit her the way it was at the moment, making her hair appear lustrously golden. She was in a nice green dress, which made her look like she could be a princess. Maybe she _was_ a princess, a princess who was locked in a tower by an evil witch and was waiting for her true love to go and rescue her! Or maybe she was just a girl who happened to have a pretty dress.

Wally's stomach grumbled in pain and anguish. Artemis turned her head away from her hair, where she was braiding it, to look at Wally with an annoyed look.

"Well you're welcome," Wally muttered.

"Um, thanks… I guess," Artemis said, puzzled.

"We saved you from the tower! Basically. And then we let you come with us and paid for a room in the inn and let you sleep in one of the _two _beds. We could've just left you in there or let the ninjas take you. You should be thankful," Wally told her, irritated that she was ruining his good mood.

"Sorry, I'm just… so _annoyed_ with this _hair_ and I just want to cut it off- wait. I can cut it off! There weren't any scissors in the tower but… do you happen to have a sword with you?"

"Um. No."

"What kind of rescuer doesn't have a sword with them? Oh fine, whatever, I'll just braid it and put it in a bun. When I get home I can cut it off. If I _ever_ get home."

She looked out the window forlornly, still braiding her hair, her legs propped up under her as she sat on the bed. Wally felt almost sorry for her. But she didn't have the whole kindness and good at housekeeping vibes coming from her, and that's basically what a woman was supposed to be. He instantly disliked her.

"Wally! Artemis! We have to get out of here now. I found some clothes for us to change into, put the other clothes in this bag. I also bought some food. But we can't stay here any longer after we change. The ninjas stole our horses and there's no doubt they know where we are," Richard ordered, bursting into the room.

He shut the door behind him and drew the curtains for the window in the room. He tossed some clothes to Wally and a dress to Artemis. It was obvious Richard had already changed, his clothes were no longer the grand robes of a duke's son, but the clothing of a farmer's apprentice. The clothes he gave to Wally were basically clothes that a man who made a modest income would wear, and the dress given to Artemis was the same, except it'd be the wife or sister of the man who made a modest income.

"If they stole our horses, why do you still have your stuff?" Wally asked Richard.

"I always carry my bag with me," Richard replied, slinging it over his shoulder, "I suggest we plan something before we leave, I bought a map from the innkeeper."

Richard laid out a map of the kingdom on the bed that was currently unoccupied. Artemis dropped the dress onto her bed, finished pinning up her hair, and then moved to kneel on the ground next to Richard, Wally across from them on the other side of the bed. They all examined the map carefully.

"We're _here_ right now, and the castle is _here_. So we can go through the woods and get back, which is the quickest way back, but the ninjas probably have a tight watch on the woods. We can go around the woods, but they'd probably expect that too. Our safest bet is _this way_," Richard instructed, tracing out an outline of the path they should take.

"One problem," Artemis noted, "how am _I _supposed to get home?"

"Well the ninjas, or your kidnapper, whoever, took you away from your home right? So they'll probably be watching your house too. So we're just going to take you with us to the castle. That's just the plan for now; we can figure something out later. Besides, neither Wally or I know where you live, and it doesn't seem like you do either," Richard pointed out.

**Artemis**

Richard had also given her a head scarf that was common for women of working class to wear on her head. Apparently her hair would be an obvious signal to the ninjas that this was the group of kids they were looking for. It wouldn't be that hard to spot three kids traveling on foot- a redheaded boy, a blonde girl with extremely long hair, and a black haired boy walking to the castle wasn't exactly the most common sight. Of course, Wally and Richard were pretty upset about the loss of their horses, and Artemis had actually kind of bonded with Flash when he carried her through the woods as the ran for their lives. She would miss him too.

Which reminded her of something…

"So you say you have… Lightning King powers?" Artemis asked Wally in a tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Course I do. You witnessed them last night."

"How do I know I wasn't hallucinating? I _was_ stuck in a tower for over a week with no communication with the outside world," Artemis retorted.

"If you were hallucinating, I probably wouldn't be alive right now. There were two horses and three of us. And probably a hundred ninjas. They would've caught up with me and killed me or something…"

Artemis couldn't argue with that. She wondered why the two boys were even in the woods in the first place. They hadn't known about her obviously, and they wanted to "get back to the castle". Were they… royalty?

"Wait, are you guys royalty?" she asked with realization.

Richard stopped contemplating… whatever he was contemplating, and looked up at Artemis.

"You don't know who he is?" he asked her, surprised.

"No…"

"He's the _prince_," Richard said.

Artemis flushed slightly. She'd been rude to _the prince_. Wow. And the other boy, Richard, was the prince's best friend. _Great_.

"Eh. Don't worry about it," Wally said.

"I'm sorry… your highness," Artemis apologized, feeling ashamed.

Wally suddenly didn't like how she was being stiff and formal with him. Maybe she'd be nicer now that she knew who he was, but truthfully? He liked it better when people were themselves around him, not just being nice to him because he was royalty.

"Artemis, don't worry about it, if you don't like me, you don't have to pretend to. Just… be _you_," Wally told her.

"…Alright. But where am I supposed to change? Because I'm not changing in here. With you two. In here."

* * *

><p><strong>Characters: Richard, Wally, Artemis, Huntress<strong>

**Happy Thanksgiving to any of you in America :D I'm thankful for my awesome reviewers!**

**This chapter features Huntress- who seems to know something about Richard that Wally and Artemis are clueless to. Did you notice Huntress was wearing pants? :P she should know better, women are supposed to wear dresses. Oh well, I guess that's how she goes around pretending to be a guy. She indirectly mentioned The Question too, if you caught that :)**

**Artemis knows who Wally is now :D would you be embarrassed if that happened to you? Review what your reaction would be :)**

**-Safirel**

**(Teaser for Chapter VIII: The trio runs into Kalina on their journey back to the castle- who is she and what does she want? More is revealed about Richard's dark secret and what happens when they run into more ninjas?)**


	9. Chased

**VIII. Chased**

**Artemis**

She followed the two boys walking slightly behind them. It was interesting to see the little shops with all the different items being sold. There were things ranging from cabbages to jewelry, and completely different shops could be set up next to each other. People were furiously haggling for the trade or price they wanted, and Artemis tried to imagine her mother doing that. It actually wasn't that hard.

"Artemis! Come on, you're walking really slow," Wally criticized.

She glared at him and looked back longingly at a shiny vase that someone had made and put up for sale. Then she gave in and quickened her pace, not wanting to be left behind and somehow kidnapped by ninjas.

It wasn't long until they were out of the town and back in the countryside, open spaces and not a soul to be seen. It almost felt like being home. Except she wasn't able to just turn around and head inside her house out here. Because her house wasn't here. And so Artemis stayed close to the two boys and let the cool breeze blow through her hair (that was entwined in a complicated braid structure) and watched the white clouds overhead, floating through the blue skies.

It was probably about noon when the trio decided to take a break. They hadn't ventured from the paths (since they were following Richard who warned them that highwaymen would probably attack them if they left the paths), so they sat at the side of one and Richard took out some bread and water to pass around for their lunch.

While Artemis was in the middle of drinking from the canteen, Richard put a hand out defensively.

"Someone's coming," he whispered.

There wasn't really anywhere to hide though, most of where they were traveling was open space, and so they all gave each other frantic looks and decided they may as well stand up and fight if they needed too.

Artemis kind of wished that maybe her hair could help defend her. After all, it _was_ long enough and strong enough to be a weapon. Besides, it was enchanted hair, anything could happen. And so she willed it to trip the feet of whoever was coming. Surprisingly, it actually moved. Even though the aim was pretty terrible, a girly scream resounded through the area. There _was_ someone coming.

"Hi Richard! There you are!" a blonde girl exclaimed excitedly.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

Wally and Artemis looked at Richard questioningly. Of course he recognized the three people walking towards him. They were in the forest tribe that had shown them hospitality when Wally stole the Lightning King powers!

"Hey Kalina, River, Barbara," he replied, smiling.

Kalina had blonde hair with dark skin and green eyes, and last time Richard spoke to them, she was dating River, a dark skinned guy with brown hair and yellow eyes. Barbara had light skin and red hair, she wasn't originally part of the tribe, but one day, her stepmother took her and her brother, Carl, into the woods and tried to lose them. She'd succeeded, and they'd found their way to a candy house which they ate from, but an evil witch lived inside who wanted to eat them. Barbara used her wit to push the evil witch into the oven. When she escaped with her brother, they found their dad. Apparently their stepmom had kicked him out of the house or something, because he said he had nowhere to take them to live. So they ended up living with the tribe. At least that's the story Richard heard.

"When are you coming back to live with the tribe?" River finally asked.

"What? Why would I go live with the tribe?" Richard questioned, puzzled.

"Well, you went through with the marriage rituals with Barbara and we just thought you might-" Kalina started.

"MARRIAGE RITUALS?" Richard exclaimed.

Wally couldn't hold in his laughter anymore and exploded in contagious laughter, causing Artemis to catch on a little bit. They both seemed amused by Richard's predicament.

"Yeah… when you gave her the special purple lily of the forest…" Kalina said.

"I found a flower on the ground and she told me it was pretty," Richard stated.

"And then you told her father that they had a nice tree house…" Kalina continued.

"Well how was I supposed to know that telling someone his tree house is nice is part of some marriage ritual?" Richard protested.

"Then you walked to the sacred rock with Barbara," Kalina kept talking.

"I didn't know that the rock had any significance!"

"And then you accepted her offer to stay the night at their tree house."

"Because my traveling companion was still blacked out and I didn't know where else to go and she offered to let me stay at their house and- I'M _MARRIED_?" Richard cried.

Wally and Artemis looked on, figuring interfering would lead to more problems, and so they started a game of I Spy. It didn't last very long since they only spied trees, grass, dirt, clouds, and people. And so they continued to watch what was happening.

"Yes. You're _married_," River said, rolling his eyes.

Richard paced, muttering to himself and every so often glanced at Barbara, who was crossing her arms and frowning, seeing her "husband" was traveling with some blonde girl she'd never seen before.

"Hey. Um, Richard, buddy, I think we need to go. _Now_," Wally interrupted his thinking process.

Because in the distance, an army of ninjas was traveling towards them. On _horseback_. And this time, they had a leader.

Richard glanced up at the scene, threw his hands up in the air, and yelled, "This is just _great_. My day has been _perfect_."

"Well?" Wally asked his friend.

"Carry Artemis out of here. They're after her. They probably won't do anything to us," Richard finally directed, thinking a little more clearly now.

And so Wally scooped her up and started running.

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

She held on tightly to Wally while he ran, cutting through the air. Her hair floated gently on the wind and she could see the determined look on his face. It was strange how her heart seemed to leap against her chest when she finally dared to open her eyes and look at him. But then she noticed something else too.

"You might be able to run _fast_, but you're still just a _kid_," a guy shouted at Wally, approaching them.

And he was running just as fast as Wally, maybe even faster.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

"There's another thing we should probably tell you," River said.

Richard didn't think there could possibly be any news worse than being married, and at such a young age too, so he nodded his head, signaling he wanted to hear the news.

"After you left, a guy named Eobard Thawne came to the tribe with that exact same army of ninjas and attacked us, looking for the elder who knew the secret to the Lightning King powers. He kind of wanted some, said he saw a kid running around beating up his ninja army with them while they tried to get some girl in a tower or something, and so he wouldn't stop killing tribespeople until Hadiir agreed to go through with the ceremony. So yeah. I think that's him," River said.

Richard stared at River blankly.

"You _think_? Well now what? He's going to catch up to Wally and then he'll probably capture Artemis and then we'll have failed our mission. And this doesn't change the fact that I'm married!"

"WE GET IT. YOU'RE MARRIED AND YOU'RE NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT," Barbara finally said.

Obviously she was annoyed at how Richard was reacting to the news.

"Well do _you_ want to be married to me?" Richard asked.

"Hm… maybe _romantically involved._ But no. Not married," Barbara replied.

"Then why did you carry through with the ceremony? Wait. _Romantically involved_?" Richard exclaimed.

"I carried through with the ceremony because my dad gave approval by telling you 'samersharakiyl' after you complimented the house! I don't have a choice after that!" Barbara answered, ignoring the second half of what he said.

"I thought that word meant 'thank you' or something in forest tribespeople language!" Richard defended himself.

They watched each other in silence. Really she was pretty, at least Richard thought she was. But he did _not_ want to be married.

"…there's tribal un-marriage customs," Kalina piped up.

"What are they?" Richard and Barbara asked at the same time.

"We tie you to a tree together for twenty-four hours. When we release you, you'll be un-married," River replied, quite indifferently.

"Okay. Let's do this."

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

He opened his eyes to see he was tied up to a horse-cart. He looked over and saw that Artemis was with him, but she seemed to still be blacked out.

"So why are you doing this again?" one of the soldiers whispered.

"I told you already. When I asked the magical talking mirror, this girl turned up as a possible marriage choice and she was not only the prettiest girl on there, but the most interesting one on there. And so I sent my ninjas to go find her. Of course, they failed. I always have to do everything myself," the leader replied.

Wally closed his eyes, wanting to trick them into thinking he was still out. Besides, he had a headache. The leader looked like the guy who'd been able to run as fast as Wally, which meant that he wasn't the only one with Lightning King powers. He'd met his equal. Sort of. This guy looked like he was twenty or something, and this guy already commanded a ninja army and a Calvary. Wally was probably just a lame prince compared to this guy. Actually, "this guy" looked kind of like Eobard Thawne, a prince from a neighboring kingdom who was only a few years older than Wally. Wally wondered if Eobard recognized him, and decided that he'd find out later. When they got to their destination. Wherever it was.

* * *

><p><strong>Characters: Artemis, Wally, Richard, Kalina (OC), River (OC), Barbara (Batgirl IOracle), ninjas, Eobard Thawne (Professor Zoom)**

**Well I got over writer's block. And I finally found time to write.**

**This chapter's plot was thought up by Rowanfall (who is super awesome and you should check out her stories! :D)**

**Special appearances of: Barbara Gordon (as tribesgirl with Hansel and Gretel inspired background story) and Professor Zoom/Eobard Thawne (as leader or as Wally calls him "this guy", where the magical talking mirror that suggests who he should marry is inspired by Shrek)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Shrek, or Young Justice.**

**So while Wally and Artemis are being carted off to who knows where, why don't you leave a review? :)**

**Thank you for reading :D**

**-Safirel**


	10. Bonding

**IX. Bonding**

**Artemis**

She woke up with a throbbing pain in her head. It was as if she'd been hit really hard, and really fast, she hadn't seen it coming… oh wait. She had.

She remembered now as she sat up in the darkness. There was a man, or more of a teenager, who was running as fast as Wally who had chased them. But surely, Lightning King powers weren't so common, were they?

Wait a second. Wally. Where was he?

Artemis adjusted her eyes to the darkness and searched the room. The guy who attacked them must have put her in there. But what did he want with her? She'd never seen him in her life. They weren't the same people who had kidnapped her, although she wasn't sure what had happened to those people either. They obviously weren't keeping very good watch on her.

Realization hit her suddenly. Was she trapped in another tower? Because if she was, she was seriously going to beat up the next person who came into sight.

She frantically ran around the room and was reassured when she ran into a wooden door. Locked.

Too bad this room didn't even have a bed. All Artemis wanted to do was rest her head, which was still kind of woozy. She wandered around barefoot on the cold stone floor, her feet tingling with every touch on the cool surface.

She remembered the way the moonlight poured into the tower room, engulfing it in white light. Surprisingly, she kind of missed her tower right now.

But then she realized it might be easier getting out of this room because the locked door was _wooden_. All she needed to get out was a powerful kick in the right spot, and then she could deal with all her other problems later.

**Wally**

He'd accidentally fallen asleep for real after closing his eyes during the journey to Eobard's castle. Sad, but true. The good part of it was he got some sleep. The bad part of it was he lost Artemis.

Currently, his hands were tied behind his back and there were guards on either side of him as he stood facing the throne.

"I haven't seen you a in long time Wallace. What're you doing trespassing on my kingdom lands?" Eobard greeted.

"That's really none of your business Eobard. In fact, we were on our way back to _my_ kingdom when you kidnapped us. Now if you'll release Artemis we'll be on our merry way," Wally replied coldly.

"Ah, _Artemis_ is it? What makes you think she'll want to go with _you_? You're so scrawny and _weak_. You don't even have any looks going for you. Don't give me that look; I'm only saying this as a concerned friend. Besides, _I intend to marry her_," Eobard noted.

"NO!" Wally shouted, trying to break free of his bounds.

The guards instinctively raised their weapons to attack him, but Eobard lifted a hand.

"She's beyond that door," he said, gesturing to a wooden door on his left, "say goodbye to her if you'd like."

Wally cautiously started to walk towards the door. What if one of the guards shoved him into there when he was opening it and locked him in? Then how would he rescue Artemis from the terrible fate of marrying that scoundrel? He reached out to touch the doorknob, and suddenly… The door split into a few chunks of wood and fell apart into a heap at Wally's feet. Standing in the spot where the door should have been was none other than Artemis, who looked like she'd just violently attacked the wooden door. It was a good thing doors didn't have nervous systems, because that door would be in serious pain right now if it did.

Artemis's eyes lit up when she noticed Wally, but she immediately scowled when she saw his captors, round kicking one of them in the helmet and aiming a spin back kick at the other guard. It took a few more hits to render them harmless, but Eobard was already shouting orders at other guards to come attack the freed captives.

"I can't do much, my hands are bound," Wally explained.

"Okay, well I'm going to hop onto your back on the count of three and then you're going to run out of here as fast as you can and don't turn around or stop or anything. I'll try to get your hands untied," Artemis ordered, "One… two… three!"

She leapt onto Wally's back and unbound him as he ran past a couple of guards and burst out of the throne room doors. Now the only challenge that lay ahead of him was to figure out how to get out of the castle.

**Richard**

Barbara was on the other side of the tree, so Richard couldn't see her. He could however, hear her, and she wasn't exactly the best conversational partner. Not when she was annoyed.

"I can't believe you. You are so troublesome. I could be having a good time right now in the tribe with someone who _actually _wants to marry me, instead of wasting good time tied to a tree with _you_."

He couldn't blame her for the accusations. It was true. This whole thing was a waste of time. But there was no way he'd be able to explain to the Duke why in the world he left the castle without permission and came back married.

"Look… I'm really sorry. Like I said, it was an accident."

"…okay, I forgive you."

"Thanks."

They sat in silence, wondering how much time had passed since River tied them up to a tree. Twenty-four hours was a long time. Were they really expected to sleep while tied up to a tree in the middle of nowhere and not get attacked? Maybe a wild animal would come along while they were sleeping and then-

A cloaked figure in the distance was heading towards them. Maybe it was just a journeyer, as the figure was riding on a horse. But it'd be a strange sight to see two teenaged kids tied up to a tree.

As the figure drew nearer, Richard realized it was a woman. And not just any other woman, it was Huntress.

She stopped her horse and lifted her hood, looking amused that she'd encountered the Vigilante's sidekick _again_, and it'd only been a day. It was strange though, since she'd left the inn earlier than the trio had, but maybe she'd taken a detour? Who knows why she was headed in the direction of Eobard's kingdom anyway.

"Need help there, Stranger?" she asked, winking at Richard.

He frowned, "I'm good."

"Who's that?" Barbara asked.

Huntress dismounted the horse and dropped a sack at Richard's side.

"There are two loaves of bread in there. I can give you one of my canteens too if you want to last out the night tied to a tree," Huntress explained.

"Where'd you get this?" Richard asked accusingly.

"Not anywhere where anyone would miss it. Now I've got some hungry people to go feed and not a favor to ask you yet, I'll see you around," she finished, mounting her horse to ride off again.

Richard felt… well, uneasy about the fact that a lady vigilante thief knew about his secret identity. He could be hanged for donning a mask and doing what he did. Vigilantes were illegal. And Huntress was one too, but worse. She actually kind of stole from Eobard to give his wealth and supplies to the peasants. Well, maybe it wasn't stealing if Eobard had stolen it first. She was just returning it. Richard decided she was one of the good guys, hopefully she didn't ask too much of him when the time came though. This was their third encounter. The kingdom was large and the people were many, but if they were going to see each other around so much, no doubt she'd have something to ask Richard of soon.

"Richard?" Barbara piped up after a while.

"Yeah?"

"I'm… sorry. I didn't really mean to yell at you before."

"It's okay. I can understand why you were distraught. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have more cause to apologize than you do."

"Hah, well, I guess. Can I have some water? I'm kind of thirsty."

Richard grabbed the canteen and passed it to Barbara around the trunk of the tree.

"Thanks."

**Wally**

The castle was a crazy maze of passageways and dead ends, Wally was pretty sure Eobard would get fed up with no one being able to retrieve the prisoners and run after them himself, which would cause problems as Eobard had lived here his whole life and would know the castle better than anyone.

Wally kept running anyway, but even as fast as he was, Artemis slowed him down, even if she wasn't _that_ heavy. It was just the fact that there was a load on his back. Not that he would leave her behind, that would be breaking the rules of chivalry.

He ran through another corridor, scaring another four maids before realizing that it led to a princess's chamber, which was a dead end.

He stopped to rest a little; he hadn't eaten in a while.

"You okay Wally?" Artemis asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine. We still need to get out of here."

Artemis opened up the window in the room.

"I don't think it's too high off the ground. I can make my hair hold on to a heavy piece of furniture in this room and lower us to the ground," she suggested.

Wally nodded as she got to work on setting everything up.

Hopefully it wouldn't take long, because right that moment, Eobard was running down the corridor.

* * *

><p><strong>So I'm finally back after a long hiatus! Midterms are over and I'm free! For now.<strong>

**Characters: Artemis, Wally, Richard, Barbara, Huntress, Eobard**

**Tell me what you thought of this chapter in a review :)**

**Thanks as always for reading,**

**Safirel**


	11. Dark Forces

**X. Freedom**

**Artemis**

Using her hair, she tripped Eobard, who still wasn't completely used to Lightning King powers. Quickly, she gathered it all back up so Wally and her could escape before anything else happened. Of course, all the guards were still chasing them, and it didn't take long for Eobard to get back up on his feet.

They did manage to get out of the castle though, which was a start. Except Wally didn't run as fast as he could since he was carrying Artemis- and he was hungry. Which meant that Eobard was starting to catch up.

It also didn't help that Artemis had unrealistically long hair, since it made it hard for Wally to try not to trip on it. Which gave Artemis an idea…

She made her hair get in Eobard's way all different sorts of ways, and eventually he tripped.

"The horses!" Wally exclaimed, pointing to two familiar looking horses.

They must have been the ones that the ninjas stole while they were sleeping in the night. Flash and Shadow!

Wally helped Artemis mount Shadow and he mounted Flash himself. They weren't really sure if Lightning King powers made Eobard faster than a horse, but the horse would be faster than a hungry Wally anyway, so they had to try.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

It was all over. He was no longer married. Although he couldn't help feeling like he might want to see Barbara again.

The twenty-four hours weren't so bad, although Richard was a little paranoid about what could've happened. But whatever he was paranoid about _didn't_ actually happen, and that was all that mattered.

Now he just needed to figure out what he was supposed to do now.

Wally and Artemis were still gone, and he had no way of knowing what had happened to them. For all he knew they were dead.

He could wait for them at the tree where they'd last saw each other, but if they really were dead… he'd be waiting around forever until he died of thirst and hunger.

Richard felt pretty terrible for not being able to help Wally in any way at all, but he knew he had some things to do, and the Duke was probably worrying about him by now.

So Richard decided to travel into town.

It wasn't the same town he'd stayed the night in with Wally and Artemis, it was a different town, a town known for black magic and witches. A town that Richard wasn't surprised to see Huntress in, riding her horse through the bleak gray streets.

The horse wasn't a little mare. It was a tall, big, dark stallion. It looked like it could outrun anyone or anything or crush anyone or anything. It was a fierce beast, a horse that could probably even compete with Richard's own horse, Shadow.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" Huntress startled Richard.

He'd been too busy admiring her horse to see she'd noticed him.

"You don't really think I didn't notice you? You were standing in plain sight."

"Sometimes that's the best place to hide," Richard retorted.

"That's true."

Huntress didn't seem exactly like she had last time Richard saw her. It didn't help that they were the only ones standing in the street.

The town seemed completely empty.

"I have something I need your help with," Huntress finally said.

Richard suddenly turned his attention back to her.

"This village… well… it's been cleared out since they discovered _witchcraft_ going on in here. I can't seem to find anyone here, but you can feel it in the air…"

"And where do I fit in?"

"I can't take down a witch by myself, who knows, she could have friends."

"Okay. Let's find her."

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

After crossing the border back into Wally's kingdom, Eobard had no control, which meant it'd be considered a crime to kidnap Artemis again. It already was the first time, but Eobard had seemed to think that they were in his kingdom, where he made the rules.

The only problem now was where to go. Wally had lost the map, not that it was the most helpful map.

So now he had no idea how to get back home, and they already didn't know where Artemis lived. That was what her parents got for being so secretive and protective.

They rode through two towns before deciding to stop at a small town called Farrenguard. The inn had four rooms, which was okay since they only needed two. Each room fit one person.

So they paid the innkeeper the twenty gold coins they salvaged and decided to turn in for the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

It wasn't much longer until she heard it.

She woke up with a jolt.

There was a roar. It came from outside, but it was a roar all the same.

Artemis wasn't one for sitting around doing nothing, even though she'd grown up on a farm, which she'd barely ever left her whole life.

So she burst out of her room and searched the interior of the inn for anything she could use to protect herself.

There was a longbow on one of the tables, someone must've left it there. But it was perfect. Only… she didn't have any arrows.

And Wally was still sleeping somehow.

Artemis knocked loudly on his door. He didn't answer. She opened it and poked him in the face. Somehow that woke him up.

He freaked out seeing her in his room in the middle of the night.

"I heard a roar outside."

"I'm sleeping."

"Not anymore. Come on."

Wally glared, but reluctantly followed Artemis outside.

A few of the villagers had awakened as well, and were staring up into the sky, pointing and shouting and screaming.

Artemis looked up, not sure what to expect.

It wasn't anything she could expect anyway. It was a dragon. And it had just set fire to one of the houses.

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

He was suddenly _very_ awake.

This would be the very first time he'd encountered a dragon. And he was _not_ prepared. At least Artemis had a bow even though she didn't have any arrows.

Wally ran to the blacksmith, who'd been standing in front of his house with an axe, as if that could somehow fight something that could fly.

"Do you have any weapons?" Wally exclaimed, trying to hurry things along.

"Do you have any gold?" the blacksmith replied.

"Look, I'll pay you back later, but I need something to fight with!"

"I got a quiver of iron arrows and a steel sword on hand right now."

"Perfect!"

Wally tossed the quiver of thirty iron arrows to Artemis, who slung it over her back. Then he took the sword for himself, well aware he couldn't do anything unless the dragon decided to land on the ground.

It was green and _huge_, and Wally wondered why he even thought they stood a chance against it.

But Artemis was already shooting arrows up into the sky at it, and as Wally stood and watched her, he couldn't help but think it was pretty attractive how good she was at archery, and how she didn't seem to be afraid of attacking the dragon.

She was quickly out of arrows, but she'd already grounded the dragon by then. Wally ran as fast as he could to the spot where the dragon landed and with a final blow, killed it.

They were safe for now.

* * *

><p><strong>Not my best chapter, but the first one in like two months!<strong>

**Who can tell I've been playing too much Skyrim and watching too many movies set in medieval witch times?**

**Yeah, I have no excuse for that.**

**Characters: Wally, Artemis, Richard, Huntress, blacksmith, dragon**

**-Safirel**


	12. Dragons and Witchcraft

**XI. Dragons and Witchcraft**

**Artemis**

The villagers stood beside the dragon, examining it to see if there was any shenanigans going on, or if it were a real dragon.

Considering the fact that Artemis and Wally had both been sheltered their whole lives, they weren't really sure if dragons were a common sight in the kingdom, but Artemis swore she'd never seen any flying above the farm, and Wally thought if dragons were a common sight, the knights would be bragging about killing them or he'd hear some news of recently attacked villages.

After overhearing some talk among the villagers, Artemis and Wally decided to conclude that dragons were not common here.

Artemis fiddled with the string on her bow and then looked carefully at the rest of the structure. It was quite simple, and she'd noticed it wasn't a very powerful bow. Also, she only had about four arrows left since the blacksmith only provided thirty arrows.

"Where'd you learn that kind of archery?" Wally asked, staring at Artemis incredulously.

"On the farm. My dad taught me," she replied, still annoyed with the poor craftsmanship of the current bow she was holding.

She turned to the blacksmith, "What kind of bows do you have in stock?"

"I'd have to go back to the shop. You can check it out tomorrow morning," he replied, starting to walk back home.

The crowd had begun dispersing, but Wally and Artemis were still curious about the dragon. So they stood around and looked at it.

It was a gray and red dragon, and wasn't actually that big. But it was still a dragon, which meant that it was still powerful. They just needed to find out where it came from.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

They quietly snuck through one of the larger houses of the town. Huntress claimed to feel something strange about that house, and Richard could argue he felt like the whole town was strange, but he did think the feeling got a little stronger the nearer to the house he went.

So they entered and Huntress drew her crossbow, just in case anything attacked.

The house seemed abandoned, like every other house in the town. Huntress collected the gold she saw laying around on tables as she went deeper into the house, which seemed a little strange to Richard. Maybe that was the way she earned money. By looting. But maybe it's not looting if there's no one around to claim the money.

They came upon a staircase that descended down into darkness and Richard felt a chill up his spine. They stood next to the staircase, out of sight, and listened.

Then they heard a witch incantation. Soon other voices joined. From Richard's count, there were about five of them.

Hearing them chant was pretty freaky. They were using dark magic, obviously, and it was a crime. But they kept chanting, and luckily, they didn't know that Huntress and Richard were there.

Huntress peeked down the staircase and let an arrow fly.

Richard tried to remain calm, but he wasn't used to dealing with witches who probably knew spells that could kill him or something, without even touching him. He was used to dealing with petty thieves, stopping brawls, fighting crooks and angry horsemen, and various other things with regular human beings.

"One down, four to go," Huntress announced softly, darting down the dark staircase.

Richard took a deep breath, and followed her down. It didn't help that it was night outside. But he didn't want to think about that at the moment.

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

Wally figured he could probably collect some of the dragon's scales and sell it to someone for some gold, since he was dirt poor at the moment and he wasn't about to sell the horses. That was the bad thing about getting kidnapped, the enemy usually takes your money and supplies and leaves you with nothing but the clothes on your back.

But he needed to get on task. He still owed the blacksmith for the iron arrows and steel sword.

The dragon scales glinted in the sunlight and Wally tugged hard to try and pull them off to no avail. Suddenly he cut himself yanking on one of them.

As he nursed his hand, he wondered if the dragon scales could make a good weapon. Or even good armor. It seemed to protect the dragon well enough. He just needed to figure out how to get the scales off.

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

While Wally busied himself with the corpse of the dragon, Artemis was doing something practical. They'd paid the inn the last of their money, and they still owed the blacksmith, and Artemis wanted a better bow. And maybe some new clothes. Her current ones were completely covered in dirt and was starting to tear.

So she asked around the village for some work, and managed to find a woman who wanted Artemis to deliver a letter to Central City for a reward of fifty gold.

Artemis would be able to pay back for the arrows with ten gold, which meant she'd have forty gold left. That meant that the steel sword would be paid for too. But they'd have no money left over. It also meant traveling a few miles away from Keystone Village.

She sighed and wondered whether it was worth it or not. She could ride Shadow there now and be back by afternoon. And then they wouldn't have to worry about owing the blacksmith. So she saddled up Shadow and got ready to leave.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

The witches were powerful, but Huntress's crossbow and Richard's fists were even more powerful. Well, mostly Huntress's bow. It was also because these witches weren't very powerful. The ones with real power must've left the village too. After all, these ones were just novices if they needed to read off of slips of paper.

They just needed to find the real witches now. Before they carried out their plot to take over the kingdom. At least, the apprentice witches had said something about how the witches would rise and release the force that cannot be stopped and rule the kingdom. When would they learn that there's always a chosen one who will stop their evil plans?

Well, maybe the chosen one wasn't actually Richard, but he liked to believe so, and so he did. Now he just needed to find a weapon so he didn't have to continue fighting with his fists.

* * *

><p><strong>And to summarize this chapter- Wally wants to make dragon armor, Artemis is trying to make money, and Richard is fighting witches with Huntress. I was too lazy to write a fight scene against the witches, but when they fight the real witches, I'll write it. So not much really happened in this chapter, it's mostly setting up the next chapter.<strong>

**Characters: Wally, Artemis, Richard, Huntress, blacksmith, witches, random lady, dead dragon**

**And to all the readers of this story- I decided to enable anonymous reviews. As you can probably tell. I was a little hesitant since the first anonymous review I ever got was extremely rude and about how much the person hated my story. But I decided not to care what they thought and let some other (nicer) people have a chance to give their opinion on this story.**

**So please, no flames if you review, and please do review and tell me what you think! Reviewers can feel free to make suggestions about what direction I should take this story as well, because I read each review carefully and take ideas into consideration. Now this does not guarantee that your idea will make it into the story, but I will think about it.**

**And now I'm done rambling.**

**-Safirel**


	13. Missing Persons

**XII. Missing Persons**

**Conner**

Puppy was getting bigger now. And the prince had been missing for almost a month.

Princess Linda's parents were getting worried and had sent a courier with a message saying that if Prince Wallace didn't return soon, all prospects of marriage would be null and they would start looking into alliances with other countries.

Mostly Conner and Megan wanted to spend as much time together as they could before she'd have to leave again. Conner decided that he was going to train hard to be a knight, so then he could travel the world and see her more often. After all, if he were a knight, he would be in her class and might actually be able to marry her.

Suddenly, the Duke grabbed Conner by the arm and pulled him out of his daydream.

Conner jumped, startled and would have let out a yell if the Duke hadn't clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Do you know where the Prince and Richard are?" he asked Conner, as if there were some big secret that the three of them would share.

Conner shook his head quickly and glanced over at Puppy, then back at the Duke.

"No sir."

The Duke looked vexed. He huffed and paced around, mumbling to himself about "that boy". Conner stood, not knowing if he were dismissed yet or not.

* * *

><p><strong>Bruce Wayne (Duke)<strong>

"My boy is missing, and so is the Prince. I have told the King that I could find a small group who would be able to retrieve the boys in a few weeks time."

Sir Clark and Sir Oliver stood across from the Duke, ready to listen to his orders.

"I was thinking you two could help.

* * *

><p><strong>Conner<strong>

After his talk with the Duke, he decided if he took it into his own hands to find his friends, he might actually get promoted to knight for finding the missing prince. Which sounded pretty good. After all, what could go wrong as long as he had Puppy and Spear? Spear was his horse, and he was known as the fastest, strongest horse in the kingdom, left to him by some foreigners whom he'd helped.

Now he just needed a little bit of help...

* * *

><p><strong>Roy<strong>

Conner decided to ask Roy first. After all, they were friends as squires.

"I don't know if we can find a missing prince and the Duke's son on our own. This kingdom is pretty huge. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack," Roy said, "Besides, we have no leads."

Conner looked a little downfallen, and then out of nowhere, Kaldur came out of the shadows. Which was a little creepy since they didn't think anyone was there.

"I have a possible lead. I overheard the Prince and his friend talking about a journey for greatness before they left."

"And you didn't _tell_ anyone?" Roy exclaimed.

"I did not believe they would be missing for so long. But I believe I can help," Kaldur finished.

Conner shrugged, "We need all the help we can get."

"Fine," Roy said, "but I need a few minutes to saddle up my horse and gather supplies."

* * *

><p><strong>Oliver<strong>

He'd been having a pretty good time journeying with his friends so far, but he was starting to get a little irritated with their seriousness. And they were starting to get irritated with his flamboyance.

"Can you _please_ stop singing minstrel songs for at _least_ five minutes?" Clark complained, glaring straight ahead.

"Well how else will this possibly be a proper adventure without some road songs? Come on sing along!"

Oliver stared singing very loudly again and waited for Clark to join in. But he never did. So Oliver quieted himself and slumped down in his horse. Sometimes his friends were no fun.

* * *

><p><strong>Roy<strong>

They'd been on the road for a day and Conner had already pleaded to stop so they could feed the pet cat that they'd seen on the side of the road.

Roy had explained to Conner that if they fed the cat, then he'd lose all chance of being able to survive on his own. Conner pleaded that if they _didn't _feed the cat, then the cat would die of starvation. Roy retorted that the cat would follow them around and just be another mouth to feed, and what if they all died of starvation? Conner responded that they had enough money to buy more food if needed, and they could always find a nice home for the cat. They kept arguing like that until Roy gave in, realizing that Conner was not going to get a move on until that cat was fed. So he reluctantly pulled a chunk of bread out of his food sack and gave it to Conner.

Conner happily fed the cat and then it started following them, seeming to get along just fine with Puppy.

"Are you going to name this one 'Kitty'?" Kaldur asked, referring to the odd name Conner had chosen for Puppy.

"Of course not, the cat's name is going to be Nina!"

No one really could fully understand that boy.

* * *

><p><strong>It was about time for people to go searching for the prince!<strong>

**Besides, Rowanfall gave a very good suggestion wondering how Conner, Megan, and Kaldur are doing. Well, Megan didn't exactly appear in this chapter, but she was mentioned. I would imagine she's busy tending to the princess.**

**(Characters: Conner, Roy, Kaldur, Bruce, Oliver, Clark)**

**-Safirel**

**To: Keepmovingforward2- Haha thanks for the sympathy! I think the sad part about it was mostly that it was one of my first stories. I do believe everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but that person was just trying to be mean.**


	14. A Gift

**XIII. A Gift**

**Artemis/Wally**

The quest was easy enough and she returned from her journey, letter successfully delivered, and weapons from the blacksmith paid for.

She'd noticed that Wally was still fiddling with the dragon all the time, but didn't pay much attention to it.

Mostly she worked on the nearby farm, harvesting and planting crops for the farmers. It wasn't much pay, but since it still saved them some work, they paid her ten gold coins per bushel. At this rate she didn't expect much. It took a while for crops to grow.

Wally carried whole bags of things back and forth from the site of the dragon to the blacksmith's shop, and Artemis harvested, quietly observing his odd behavior from her spot on the farm. She wiped her hands on her apron after finishing harvesting the last few potatoes, and decided to go check out what that boy was doing.

* * *

><p><strong>RichardHuntress**

They had to stop at another town. Traveling wasn't so easy in this part of the kingdom; it was a mountainous area with harsh weather and a lot of blizzards. It also didn't help that they'd spotted a dragon on their way here.

But Richard and Huntress stumbled upon a tiny town tucked into the mountains and decided it might be a good idea to stop for the night. After all, they were both getting a little hungry.

"Welcome to Thoran," a woman greeted them as Huntress led her horse to the nearest stable, "what are young men like you doing traveling up here?"

Richard almost corrected her, but then remembered Huntress was masquerading as a man. It made her line of work easier.

"We're… visiting some family," Richard said, realizing that if Huntress talked, her cover would be blown, "my brother here is mute, so forgive him."

"It's alright, no one in _this_ town is completely normal," the lady replied, "Oh! I haven't properly introduced myself. My name is Frida. There aren't many left in our small village. There are a few young girls, mostly older women and women around my age."

"I don't mean to be rude… but… is your husband…?"

Frida's smile was obviously there to cover up the sadness she felt, "My husband died in the war. Many men from this village were taken to the military to fight King Eobard, and many of the boys left since they wanted to do anything they could to get out of here."

"I'm sorry," Richard responded.

"Oh it's quite alright, come now, let's get you two a place to stay."

* * *

><p><strong>RoyKaldur/Conner**

"Absolutely not," Roy stated firmly as his friends tried to push him into talking to the girl.

They'd stopped in a small village plopped in the middle of the countryside, and the moment they'd entered, his eyes landed on a pretty girl with dark hair and dark eyes.

She was standing with a group of friends, and every so often, the five of them would giggle and glance over.

Conner told Roy to take initiative, or he'd regret it. Kaldur told Roy that he'd never know what could have been if he didn't do anything about it.

"I'm not going over there! I don't know them!" Roy argued.

Conner rolled his eyes, "I'll go talk to them then."

"Wait!" Roy cried.

The girls looked over. He snapped his head down to examine his shoes.

"They're not looking anymore," Kaldur whispered, laughing.

Roy grimaced and rubbed his neck with his right hand. He shouldn't have moved so fast. He could've gotten whiplash or something.

Kaldur nudged his shoulder gently, and Roy sighed, and started walking to the group of girls.

"Hey handsome," the girl he'd had his eye on greeted him.

"Hey…" he started, then turned around and sped walked back to his friends to whisper, "I can't do this."

"Sure you can, I could do it," Conner said.

Roy glared, "Don't forget we have a mission."

"No one's forgetting anything. Everyone needs a little downtime," Kaldur said, "Besides, if you never talk to her, you'll never forget that, and you'll be distracted. So go!"

Roy walked back for the second time.

"I'm Jade," she told him, smiling.

"I'm… a knight."

Conner and Kaldur shook their heads from behind him. He could be a little paranoid about revealing his name sometimes.

Jade raised an eyebrow, but went along with it, "Care to save any damsels in distress anytime? More likely _I'd _be the one saving you."

"Is that a challenge?" he was suddenly very engaged in the conversation.

"Only if you can beat me to the bakery in that armor!"

"If you don't trip over your skirt!"

Conner and Kaldur smiled with satisfaction. Their side-quest was complete.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark**

"I talked to the kid the other day," Bruce said, breaking the silence.

Oliver and Clark both knew what kid he was talking about. _Conner_. He almost looked exactly like Clark, except he was sixteen.

"Oh come on Clark, just because you ignore him, it doesn't make him any less your son!" Oliver exclaimed.

"Yes, but it still goes against the laws of chivalry. A knight finds a woman who he stays with forever. Not a woman who he has a child with who also dies in childbirth."

Clark still refused to tell his two friends who exactly the woman was, but since many women died in childbirth, it wasn't that easy to figure out either.

"We're here," Bruce said, pointing at a tower.

"I dunno… looks pretty abandoned to me. Why do you think the tribal people told us to come here?" Oliver asked.

"They were here alright, just not anymore," Bruce said.

"Huh. I think we should've stayed with those tribal people a little longer. They were pretty cool."

"They were pretty weird," Clark argued.

"They were not."

"They were too."

"Not."

"Too."

"Not."

All it took was a simple glare from Bruce and the two stopped arguing.

"Too," Clark whispered.

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally**

He'd finally done it. He had created something almost like a chainmail, except made out of dragon scales. One for himself, and one for Artemis. Although he wasn't sure if it would fit her since he didn't know her size, and it would be impolite to ask. But he'd also "borrowed" some of the money she'd made to donate to the cause.

Wally had created the dragonmail easily enough, but he needed the services of the blacksmith to forge a sword, a bow, and buy some more arrows.

The nice thing was that the blacksmith gave a discount to him for slaying the dragon.

Now he just needed to show Artemis the new stuff. Then they could be on their way journeying back to the castle again. They really needed to report this dragon stuff to the king.

"Hey Arty!" Wally yelled as Artemis started to leave the farm carrying a basket with a few vegetables she'd harvested and got to keep that day.

"Yes Wally?" she asked, annoyed he'd made up a nickname for her.

"Come back to the inn, I want to show you something."

"This better not be another cool shaped rock you found," she said, rolling her eyes.

She followed him to the inn and set the basket down in her room before entering his room. Lying on the bed were two suits of… _dragon_mail armor, a quiver of arrows, a bow made from dragon bones, and a sword made with some part of the dragon.

Artemis found it pretty cool that Wally found a use for this stuff. After all, if they were going to be killing something, they might as well be able to use it to their advantage.

"You can practice with the bow and we can keep heading back to the castle tomorrow morning," Wally said, grinning.

"Alright, and Wally?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

* * *

><p><strong>RichardHuntress**

Huntress decided to stay in the room they occupied while Richard asked around to see if he could find any news of witch activity or anything like that.

He couldn't seem to find Frida anywhere, but he met another woman named Lydia (whose reaction to witches was, "Oh my! How terrible!" and couldn't provide any useful information) and a girl named Zatanna who seemed a little suspicious of him.

"Boys shouldn't be in this village. It's cursed for any man who dares to enter," she'd said cryptically. Then a woman came and rushed her away.

Afterwards, Richard was too haunted to talk to anyone else, and he felt her intense gaze resting on him. She kind of freaked him out, but he went back to Huntress and reported that there wasn't really much news to report.

He remembered Zatanna's ice blue eyes and her penetrating look, as if she could stare right into your soul and rip it out.

"We should leave this village."

* * *

><p><strong>There are so many characters I decided to organize them into groups now.<strong>

**So yeah. You probably noticed it's Artemis/Wally, Roy/Kaldur/Conner, Richard/Huntress, and Bruce/Oliver/Clark. Don't worry, they're not pairings :P well, not _all_ of them. Okay well they're not intended to be pairings. It just makes the story a little easier to follow.**

**Basically Artemis/Wally now have enough supplies to continue traveling, Richard/Huntress are still in the strange little village, Roy/Kaldur/Conner are getting distracted from searching for their friends, and Bruce/Oliver/Clark are having discussions about Conner while searching for the Prince and Richard.**

**(Characters: Artemis, Wally, Richard, Huntress, Roy, Kaldur, Conner, Bruce, Oliver, Clark, Frida, blacksmith, Jade, Lydia, and Zatanna)**

**-Safirel**

**_YJ-Lover: _There's a surprise for you in the next chapter. Might have a little something to do with your review... ;)  
><strong>


	15. Shocking

**XIV. Shocking**

**Artemis/Wally**

They rode through the countryside, stocked with everything they needed.

They had weapons in case of attack.

They had horses for fast travel.

They had food so they wouldn't starve.

And they had each other, so they wouldn't go insane riding through the countryside with no one to talk to.

But actually, they thought they might go insane from each other's company after a while.

"Can I have some cheese?" Wally asked, for the fifth time.

"No."

"Please?"

"_No_."

"But-but-"

"I said no!"

"Why do you get to keep the food?"

"Because you'll eat it all."

"No I won't."

"Yes you will."

"_No_ I _won't._"

"_Yes_ you _will_."

"…fine, I would, but I'm _really_ hungry."

"You're not going to die. Besides, didn't you say we're almost back to the castle?"

"Um… I probably didn't _phrase_ it that way, and you probably heard me wrong…"

"WALLY! Seriously, do you even know where we're going?"

"…yes?"

Artemis sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I guess we'll have to stop at the next town and purchase a map," she said.

* * *

><p><strong>RoyKaldur/Conner**

"That girl over there has been watching us for the longest time," Roy said, jerking his head to the side.

Kaldur and Conner shifted their eyes so they could barely see her in their peripherals.

"Maybe another admirer?" Conner suggested.

"Of _you_, not Roy, she's been watching _you_," Kaldur told Conner.

Conner blushed. He'd told Megan about how he'd strive to be a knight so he could be with her. He never thought about _other_ girls being attracted to him. He hadn't even been interested in girls until he met Megan. He'd been more interested in training hard to gain his father's love. Except his father would never love him. He was just an everyday reminder about his mom and his dad's affair.

"Earth to Conner?" Roy snapped, jolting Conner out of his thoughts.

"Hm? Oh. Um," he started.

"She's walking over here," Roy continued, smirking.

"No! But, I-"

"Hey!" she piped up cheerfully, pulling down her hood.

Conner's face turned completely red. Megan had followed them. But how?

"Do you know this girl?" Roy asked as Kaldur stifled his laughter.

Conner nodded. He was happy to see her, but what was she doing away from the princess? Besides, it was dangerous out there, she could get hurt.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark**

"Our next lead takes us to this tree…" Oliver starts.

"How could Richard have let himself get tied up to a tree?" Bruce exclaimed, cutting Oliver off in his outburst.

He paced around the tree, examining it for other clues.

"I thought I trained that boy to be able to take care of himself, and apparently he got himself tied up to a tree! There aren't even signs of a struggle!" Bruce muttered under his breath, annoyed.

He picked up a canteen of water. _Definitely _Richard's. The marks on the floor also matched those of the bottom of Richard's shoes. And clearly, he was tied to a tree. With someone else. But the shape of the other person was too small to be Wally's. Maybe… a girl's? Had Richard _really_ gotten distracted by a _girl_? He was too young for this! Or maybe there was more to this story than he knew.

* * *

><p><strong>RichardHuntress**

Richard walked out of the inn, ready to leave. Huntress followed behind him, her head down, her hood obstructing her face.

It was dark out. Obviously, this it wasn't safe to travel at night, but Richard couldn't stay another night in Thoran. The place just gave off the creepiest vibes.

The pair snuck through the bushes, keeping themselves hidden as they snuck off to find the horse.

And then that's when he heard it. Chanting. He couldn't make out the words, it didn't even sound like a real language. Or maybe it was…

"Witches' incantations," Huntress whispered, "This whole town is filled with _witches_."

* * *

><p><strong>Who saw that coming? :D<strong>

**I did! Oh wait, I was the one writing it... ^^;;**

**Idea of Megan following Conner belongs to YJ-Lover. :)**

**-Safirel**

**_Dextra2_: I guess the tribal people just didn't tell the three about Wally's super speed. After all, it was a secret ritual. They don't want many outsiders to know about it.  
><strong>


	16. Friends

**XV. Friends**

**Artemis/Wally**

"That'll be forty gold."

Artemis paid and took the map, heading back to the horses.

"That was one expensive map. How much gold do we have left?" Wally asked.

Artemis shook the coin purse and looked in, "Not much. Like twenty gold or so."

"What should we do?"

"Just keep going and hope we get back before we starve?"

"That'll be hard."

They stood in the center of the village, pondering on what they should do.

"I think we could help."

Wally and Artemis turned to see who was talking to them. And Wally couldn't have expected it at all.

* * *

><p><strong>RoyKaldur/Conner**

"Who're these people?" Artemis asked, getting into a fighting stance.

"Woah princess, we're just friends of Wallace here. No need to hurt us with your… bow," Roy replied, wondering why a girl would carry a weapon.

Artemis lowered her guard, but she was still wary of the three strangers.

"We tracked you here," Conner explained to Wally, "But it looks like you replaced Richard with… her."

Kaldur leaned over to Roy and whispered, "What do you think Princess Linda will think about this?"

"I'm sure everything's fine."

"An engaged boy and a pretty girl (who is not the fiancée) together for a month and everything's fine?"

Roy ignored Kaldur and turned back to his friend. The three horses were neighing at each other, probably reacquainting themselves.

"Well I guess we'll escort you back to the castle. And Miss…"

"Artemis," she said.

"Artemis, we'll escort you home," Roy finished.

"I don't know where my home is," she replied, putting the map in her saddlebag.

"…Well then I guess we'll just figure it out along the way. You'll have to explain to us what's going on," Roy told Wally. He nodded, and the five of them mounted their horses.

* * *

><p><strong>RichardHuntress**

"Come on, let's hurry up," Richard whispered to Huntress.

But she seemed entranced by the witches, and she started getting up from their hiding place, walking towards the witches. She was in a trance.

Richard tried to grab her, but it was too late. All he could do now was hide in the bush as she continued walking towards the chanting witches.

"Rise sister and join us!" one of the women, Lydia, said to Huntress, making excited gestures as they initiated her.

Richard continued hiding, wondering what was going to happen. Then a hand grabbed him. He pulled himself free, afraid that he'd been discovered. It was Zatanna.

"I told you to leave," she stated firmly, anger clearly in her eyes.

"I tried to," Richard said, glaring.

There was something off about her, but he couldn't tell what it was. Well actually, now that he thought about it, it was pretty obvious. She was a witch too. But what was she doing helping him?

"Look, I need to get my hypnotized friend and get out of this place."

Zatanna didn't reply, she just stared at the witches and rose from her crouching position. Richard widened his eyes; scared she might tell the other witches where he was located.

"Did you find the boy?" Frida asked.

"No," Zatanna said, "He must have escaped."

"Ah, well after we perform the sacred ritual tonight, there is no way of escape from his inevitable fate. We shall release the dragons," Frida continued, "and we are in need of your services my dear, now come along."

Zatanna walked forward, through the flames, chanting some witches' incantations.

Richard almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. But he had to do something besides sitting there helplessly.

He snuck nearer to the witches, but kept himself hidden in the trees. There were only five of them, including Zatanna, but excluding Huntress, who still seemed under a spell.

"There's someone out there," Lydia warned.

"The boy," Frida said, stopping the ritual, "Find him!"

Two of the witches ran off and started searching for him. It was now or never. He took a deep breath and stepped out into the open.

"There he is," Frida said, pointing directly at Richard.

Lydia muttered some words under her breath and threw her hand at Richard. But before the spell could take hold, he pulled a dagger to Zatanna's throat.

"I _will_ kill her if you don't let Huntress go," he warned, the cold dagger barely pressing against her throat.

She didn't resist or struggle at all. She didn't even show any fear at the fact that her life might be taken away any instance.

Lydia started laughing, but she still didn't complete the spell.

"Her death will be on your hands," Lydia said, an elfish grin on her face.

Richard was confused, why didn't they care. And then he realized it. Frida was a necromancer. Zatanna wasn't human. She had been brought back from the dead before, she could almost been considered an entity. That was how she had come into contact with other worldly beings.

"Kill her. I dare you to," Frida said.

* * *

><p><strong>I had to do a lot of research on witches for this chapter. The next one will be longer. I just decided to upload this while I had it. Because I love my cliffhangers.<strong>

**Thanks for all the reviews guys :D**

**If you're reading this... Review. I dare you to. At least I'm not daring you to kill Zatanna.**

**Yeah.**

**So now one of the groups has combined! How fun.**

**I'm going to go play Skyrim now. Have a nice life :D**

**-Safirel**


	17. Strange Encounters

**XVI. Strange Encounters**

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

She wasn't used to spending so much time with so many boys. It was a little strange really, but at least there was one other girl in the group.

It seemed to Artemis that this girl, Megan, was with Conner or something, since she spent so much time with him, and she always rode her horse near his.

Not that Artemis was jealous or anything, as attractive as Conner was, she had to admit that Roy and Kaldur were pretty nice too. And maybe, even Wally. But he was nowhere near as buff as the other boys.

For Conner it was strange that Megan had actually followed him on their journey. He didn't know how to feel, the last thing he wanted was to see her hurt. But he was sure that was going to happen. She'd noticed that he'd been avoiding her since she got there, and that he barely spoke to her. She didn't know if he was ashamed of her or what.

The group rode their horses near the shore, trying to avoid encountering any more dragons, not that there was a guarantee of no dragons near the shore. But it was the best they could hope for. Besides, according to the map, there was a gulf that could lead them to the castle faster if they figured out how to get across it.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark**

"The kingdom goes into Eobard's territory out this far," Bruce said, looking past the border.

There were sentries stationed in nearby watchtowers, eyeing the group suspiciously.

"We can't pass into the border, but if the Prince was taken there…" Clark started.

"No, we're not going across. Look," Bruce said, pointing over to a trail of hoofmarks.

"They were chased back across the border?" Oliver asked, "But how do you know that was them?"

"The hoofmarks look the same as the ones we followed here. Remember, the prince's horse has the royal emblem on the bottom of his horseshoes," Bruce reminded them.

"So we go back from where we came from," Clark said.

Bruce shook his head, "No. They didn't go back the same way they came. Let's just hope they don't wander into the Gulf of Mermaid Tears."

* * *

><p><strong>RichardHuntress**

His hold on the dagger loosened. He wasn't sure how to continue.

Did he have the strength to kill her?

Could he really do that?

Questions flooded his mind, but he didn't have much time.

"Didn't think you could," Frida laughed, turning back towards Huntress to continue her chanting.

Richard dropped the dagger and fell to his knees. It was over for him.

"Get up," Zatanna urged, the usual hardened tone in her voice softened a little, "she needs you."

He looked up into her blue eyes, and saw a tiny bit of warmth from them. It was probably the most emotion she could show.

She must have been through terrible things to have died and come back again. Richard couldn't imagine what she'd been through.

He forced himself to get up on his feet, a renewed strength in him. Zatanna seemed to be giving him power.

"What are you doing Zatanna? Stop it," Lydia snapped.

But Zatanna didn't stop, "It's over for me Lydia. Don't bring me back again. Let me be with my family."

Her eyes started to glow, and then the whole entirety of her seemed to sparkle. And then she was just… _gone_.

"No!" Richard cried.

He was suddenly engulfed with a new sense of the pain she'd been through, and he realized that she'd given that to him. As well as her power.

He breathed in and felt the forces within him.

It all happened too fast. One second the witches began to glow, and he realized he was the one doing that, the next second, they couldn't cast spells anymore.

"Don't," he said firmly as Frida pulled out a dagger and put it to Huntress's throat.

"I can take care of myself," Huntress said, smiling.

She spun around and disarmed Frida so quickly that Lydia barely had time to react.

Huntress quickly tied up the two witches and turned to Richard, "What should we do with them?"

"Bless their poor souls?" Richard suggested.

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

"You shouldn't cross the gulf. It's a dangerous feat," a local fisherman warned.

"Can we at least buy your boat?" Roy asked.

"Mine? No. But if you want a boat, Gerald put his up on the market for four-hundred gold."

"Thanks," Roy said.

The group walked out of the fisherman's earshot.

"Should we buy the boat?" Roy asked.

"If we don't, we'll have to go all the way back around. There are mountains blocking this path, so it'll take a lot longer," Artemis reminded them.

They all crowded around the map.

"I think the four-hundred gold is worth it," Wally said.

"All right then. You're the prince. Your word is law," Roy concluded, "Let's buy the boat."

* * *

><p><strong>RichardHuntress**

They'd left the creepy village, the witches dealt with and the threat of dragons ended.

There was one thing on Richard's mind. He knew that it would be time for him to continue traveling on his own soon, but he wasn't sure when, or if he had the resources to go off on his own yet. So he didn't mention it to Huntress.

He just hoped that she wouldn't abandon him that night while he fell asleep in the inn of a village far from the witch village.

He thought about Zatanna, and her sacrifices. But he saw in her eyes that she truly wanted to join her family, and she didn't want to have to keep suffering here. He knew she was good. He fell asleep, his last thoughts of Zatanna.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark**

"Sorry, excuse me," Bruce muttered running into a hooded man.

He didn't reply, just kept walking. What a rude person. Bruce turned to get a closer look at the man he'd run into. And he saw a young boy with him. A young boy who looked an awful lot like Richard.

"Wait!" he shouted.

The hooded man and the boy turned around. That was Richard all right. But what was Richard doing with some strange guy?

The hooded man leaned down and Richard whispered something in his ear. Then they stepped towards Bruce, the hooded man pulling down his hood. And he was actually a _she_.

"I'm sorry Miss, I just-"

"I've been wanting to meet you for some time," she said, smiling.

Then she leaned down to talk to Richard, "I think it's about time we parted, good traveling to you."

She waved at Bruce, then mounted her horse and rode off.

"Who was that?" Bruce asked Richard.

He grinned, "It's a long story. I'll tell you on the way home."

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

The horses were kept on the deck of the ship. The good thing about the ship was that it fit all of them. It was pretty large. The group wasn't really sure what they were going to do with a ship this size when they got back, and they wondered why everyone was so wary of the gulf. It was calm, and very relaxing to be traveling on the water.

"I think I see something swimming in the water," Kaldur said, looking deep in the blue surface.

He was put in charge of steering the ship, after all, he came from a kingdom made up of islands and knew the most about water.

Everyone else looked over the rails, "Is it a dolphin?"

"It doesn't look like one," Kaldur said.

They continued nearing the figure, and they saw it was a woman.

"What's she doing in the ocean?"

She looked like she was drowning.

Everyone started panicking, wondering whether they should help her, or how to help her at all.

They steered closer.

Suddenly she started to sing.

It was an ominous melody, floating on the air through the sea to the boat. Artemis and Megan looked at each other confused as the boys fell into a trance, throwing themselves to the rail.

Megan tried to control the boys before they could fling themselves off, and Artemis grabbed the wheel, trying to figure out how to steer a boat.

"What are they doing?" she cried down to Megan.

"I think… I think those are sirens! Steer us out of these waters!" Megan shouted back.

Kaldur found himself fancying a particular mermaid with turquoise eyes and short reddish hair. He tried to reach down to touch her, but she'd giggle and dip into the water.

The other boys were mesmerized by the beauty of the mermaids as they stared deep into the water, a deep urge within them to leap in and join them in their happy swimming.

They continued to sing.

"Come on…" Megan groaned, pulling Conner away. He was too heavy.

"Nothing's working!" she called to Artemis.

Artemis couldn't control the boat. It was too hard navigating the waters.

The sirens started to sing louder, annoyed with the two girls' interference.

Megan slumped her shoulders, as Wally stood on the rail, ready to leap off.

"No!" Artemis shouted, running down.

She grabbed his hand and yanked him down.

"Don't," she said.

But he pushed past her to try and jump off again. She sighed and shook her head. It had come down to this. But there wasn't any other option she could see. She pulled him into a kiss, and as awkward as it was, she wasn't going to stop until he had control of himself.

When he realized what was going on, he panicked seeing so many sirens in the water and his friends trying to drown themselves. And then he noticed that Artemis had just broken free of the kiss and put him at the stern.

He desperately hoped she wasn't going to kiss any of the other boys to break them of the spell, but he didn't say anything about that.

Megan saw what Artemis had done and kissed Conner, who also came out of the sirens' spell. Then there was just Kaldur and Roy left.

So since Megan was not about to cheat on Conner in front of him, and Artemis was embarrassed enough already, Conner just held the two boys down and waited for Wally to steer them away from the siren infested waters.

* * *

><p><strong>So credits first- YJ-Lover came up with the idea of sirens and how the girls save the guys. Because girl power is awesome. She also decided that one of the sirens should be Tula, so see if you caught that :)<strong>

**Let's see... here's a cheesy Spitfire moment for you guys :D I don't know. I got lazy writing this chapter. If you want better Spitfire moments check out my story Beyond The Limit. I promise it's better ^^**

**Oh and YJ-Lover also dared me to update faster. I tried :D**

**Thank you to all my awesome reviewers thus far, and I hope I continue to add to your enjoyment of Young Justice with this story. Who watched the new episode today? I kept waking up last night since I was so excited for it, haha!**

**Well I'm going to go make a YouTube video now. If you want to see more Spitfire awesomeness go on my YT account- .com/safirelv**

**-Safirel**


	18. Calamity in the Square

**XVII. Calamity in the Square**

**Artemis/Wally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

It was dark out, and everyone was asleep in the cabins the ship provided. Everyone except Artemis.

She sat awake in the hammock, thinking. She had kissed a prince. _The_ prince of her kingdom. She giggled quietly, thinking her sister would never believe her.

She looked over to the hammock Wally had claimed before they all went to sleep.

He wasn't there.

Kaldur was there instead, which meant that his shift at the wheel was over.

Artemis hadn't noticed the change.

She leapt out of her hammock, landing silently on the wooden floor and pulled her nightgown up as she climbed up the stairs onto the deck.

The night sky was calm, a light sprinkle of stars twinkled in the sky.

Artemis stood near the main mast, entranced by the patterns of the stars. She knew they meant something, but she'd never bothered to learn astronomy. Only her father knew it anyway, and he wasn't home much to teach her.

"They're pretty, aren't they?" Wally said from behind her.

She whirled around and saw him standing at the wheel, watching her.

He couldn't help but think about how pretty her blonde hair looked, especially since all he'd seen was darkness for the longest time.

"Let down your hair," he said suddenly, not sure where that had come from. But he wanted to see what she looked like with her hair down. He hadn't seen her like that for a long time.

So she pulled the ribbon out of her hair and slowly unwound the many braids she'd made in her spare time, and her mass of blonde hair lay all around the deck, shining in the moonlight.

Artemis hugged herself as a cool wind blew over the boat.

Wally took off his coat and walked down to the deck, handing it to her.

"Thanks," she said, wrapping it around herself.

They stood under the stars silently for a moment. Then they made eye contact, and glanced away quickly.

"So," Wally said.

"Sorry about today, I just… well, you were… um…"

"It's okay."

They looked back at each other, and before they knew it, they were inches away from each other.

One of the horses neighed loudly, and the two of them leapt with surprise, looking at the horse. It seemed to be hungry.

"I… I think I'm going to go back to bed," Artemis said, gathering up the length of her hair.

"Goodnight," Wally said wistfully looking after her.

She turned back and gave him a smile, "Goodnight Wally."

He stood on the deck of the ship, watching her walk back down the stairs. He smiled to himself like an idiot for the next few minutes, a warm feeling growing inside of him.

"Artemis," he said to himself. He repeated her name again. And he knew he was in love.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard**

"Shouldn't we be looking for the prince?" Clark asked, staring at the short boy.

Richard was out of place among the three older men, and he got annoyed after a while having to look up every time he talked.

He had to do that with _everyone_. With Huntress it wasn't so bad since she was the only person he was around all the time that towered above him. Now he was with _three_ tall people, and it bothered him. But it wasn't like he wasn't used to this stuff already.

"Something tells me he'll find his own way home," Richard finally replied, looking towards the bards singing in the village square.

He gave Bruce a look of excitement, and Bruce knew what the kid wanted. He wanted to go see the traveling minstrels sing. So Bruce let Richard run up to them with a gold coin.

Richard stood with a group of villagers listening to the music happily, and he felt awkward that they were all kids. All kids _shorter_ than him, but _way_ younger. And he felt out of place again.

The minstrels finished up one of the songs they were on, and they started to tune their instruments. One of the girls didn't have an instrument, but as Richard listened, he realized she had a beautiful singing voice, which made up for it.

"You sang really good," he complimented her.

She giggled and corrected him, "Sang really _well_. But, thanks."

She wasn't being rude, just friendly, and Richard decided he wanted to talk longer.

"I'm Richard."

"I'm Brooke."

Richard realized she had almost the same shade of black hair he had, and she actually kind of looked a lot like him. Except for her eyes. They were completely different, and extremely unique. They were a shade of blue-green with what looked like gold rings around her eyes.

"So is that your family?" Richard asked her, looking at the rest of the bards.

She smiled, "Sort of. The woman playing the flute is my mom."

Richard was about to continue the conversation, but she cut in, "We're about to perform again. You're welcome to listen."

"I wouldn't mind hearing you sing again."

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

"We can sail along the coast and dock the ship over here, at the castle docks," Artemis said, tracing her finger along the course she mapped out.

Roy examined the map, "Or we can dock at Adon and walk the rest of the way. It might be faster to cut across. Besides, we need to restock our supplies."

"So just leave the ship there?"

Before Roy could say anything, Kaldur piped up, "I suggest we dock at Adon, restock our supplies, and continue sailing. That way we don't have to deal with the hassle of figuring out what to do with the ship."

Roy was glad he brought Kaldur along to resolve arguments, but it felt a little weird for everyone to listen to the foreigner all the time. Even if he was right. Still, it was strange that he seemed to be in charge of the group, but maybe it was better that way. No one else was fit to be in charge.

"Okay, that's what we'll do then," Wally agreed.

Even if Kaldur was basically in charge, Wally still had the final say.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard**

"I think Richard's found himself a girlfriend," Oliver joked, looking at Richard and Brooke.

Bruce sighed, "She's clearly too old for him Oliver."

Suddenly people in the village square were screaming.

The Duke and the two knights grabbed the hilts of their swords; turning to see what all the commotion was about.

Richard was pushing Brooke to safety as a masked archer shot arrows at the bards.

A flute fell on the ground, the metal of it clanging against the stone ground.

"Mom!" Brooke screamed, fighting Richard's hold on her to run towards her mom.

But Richard kept her down, away from the danger. She would instantly be in the danger zone if she left the safe place they were hiding in.

She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw her mother's body fall to the ground. She tried not to look at the arrows in her mother's body.

She made eye contact with her mom, and saw one last flicker of life before her eyes went completely vacant.

"Mom…" Brooke whimpered.

Suddenly Richard felt a pang of sorrow. He'd known what it was like to see his own mother die before his eyes. And he relaxed his hold on Brooke when the arrows stopped coming from the sky.

She got up and started to cry, and Richard almost cried with her.

Bruce ran over, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It was an assassin. His target was someone disguised as a bard. He killed three bystanders with a few stray arrows."

Brooke continued to sob, but managed to say something, "I knew we shouldn't have let him perform with us. He said he could play the lute… we should've told him no…"

She sniffed one more time and pulled herself together. She had to be strong.

"I want to find the assassin," she said.

"Why? What do you plan to do if you find him?" Richard asked.

She didn't say anything for a while and realized she wouldn't be able to kill him.

"What am I going to do now?" she asked.

Bruce's look softened, and he couldn't believe he was about to say this, "You can come live with us at the castle."

* * *

><p><strong>It's here!<strong>

**This chapter is dedicated to Rowanfall, who writes an amazing YJ fic called "Valiant". And of course, Brooke is her OC, so Brooke belongs to her. I really hope I wrote her correctly! So my take on Brooke (or Brooklyn) is a little different from how she is in Valiant, but you'll have to read that story to find out the whole background about her :) It's a really good story, and this is coming from a person who doesn't normally read stories with OCs. And when I say I don't read stories with OC's I mean like MAJOR OC's centered around that character. Otherwise I'd be a hypocrite for coming up with River and Kalista and Hadiir and Dikaar, or whatever the tribespeople's names were. I really don't remember anymore. Anyway, thank you Rowanfall for letting me use your OC. She's going to continue being in this story until the end, which is actually coming up pretty quickly. But I might come up with a bunch of random ideas later on and the story will be even longer... I hope not, cuz when I finish this story I have a super secret project I'm working on! ...well it's not _really_ super secret, but Rowanfall and I are going to be doing a collab. And I'll also be continuing my futurefic "Beyond the Limit". So far I think that one's coming out pretty good.**

**I'd also like to thank YJ-Lover again since s/he (sorry, I'm not entirely sure what gender you are) has helped me SO much the past few chapters. And s/he made me a list of medieval creatures, which actually helped a lot. Since it might possibly have given me a few ideas for the next chapter.**

**Hm. With all these thank you's I almost feel like the story's over. But it's obviously not since no one's home yet. And I know this isn't one of my more action-y chapters, but there will be more action in the next chapters. So stay tuned! Or, um, stay... reading. Hm, I can't think of the right verb. I guess staying tuned works, except it kind of makes me think of TV shows or something. Does it work for stories too?**

**Okay. I think I'm done with this author's note. Care to leave a review? :)**

**-Safirel**


	19. Myth

**XVIII. Myth**

**Artemis/Wally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

Artemis tossed around in her sleep, unable to get comfortable. She thought she was getting seasick, or something of that sort. But the ship was a lot rockier than it normally was. She was pretty sure that it was Kaldur's turn at the wheel, and she figured it wouldn't hurt to go check up on him to make sure he wasn't sleep sailing.

Before she could even get out of the hammock though, Wally had come running through the door and yelling, "Get up! Get up! Get up! There's a sea monster!"

Everyone was awake. By then the ship had gotten even more rickety, and everyone ran up to the deck to see what was going on. The horses neighed nonstop, fearful of the giant sea creature beholding them.

It's gigantic tentacle like limbs reached out to grab the ship, smashing the wood it was built with.

Artemis's eyes widen as she realizes she's reached the end. There's no way she can escape this sea creature.

But Kaldur has other ideas.

"Megan! Take control of steering the ship! Roy, Artemis, get your weapons from below decks. Conner and Wally, find _fire_."

So Roy and Artemis got their bows and quivers, prepared to fight the Kraken.

"You'll need this," Kaldur said, handing each of them a torch.

They understood immediately, lighting each arrow on fire before attacking the Kraken with it.

Wally, Conner, Roy, and Kaldur climbed onto the masts to throw fire at the Kraken, using sticks they set on fire with their torches.

And then they all heard a scream. The Kraken had grabbed Megan.

"Megan!" Conner yelled.

This was exactly what he'd been afraid of. This was why he didn't want her along. Because he didn't want to lose her.

With his anger and frustration he continued throwing fire at the Kraken. Artemis didn't stop shooting it either.

Then they noticed Kaldur charging at it with a sword. He sliced off the tentacle that had grabbed Megan and was now protecting himself (and her) from the other tentacles reaching for them from the outraged Kraken.

"It ate my horse!" Megan shrieked suddenly.

They kept trying to hold off the monster, but to no avail. The ship was sinking. One horse was missing. And they were nowhere near Adon.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard/Brooke**

Brooke stood by the river of a town they'd made a stop at on the way back to the castle. She was still in shock over the death of her mother, and couldn't bring herself to sing anymore. Her voice would only remind herself of her mother.

She stared into the dark water of the river and saw a beautiful white swan swim through, in search of a companion.

_Silent, oh Moyle, be the oar of they water,_

_Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose,_

_While, murmuring mournfully, Lir's lonely daughter_

_Tells to the night-star her tale of woes._

_When shall the swan, her death-note singing,_

_Sleep, with wings in darkness furl'd?_

_When will heav'n, its sweet bell ringing,_

_Call my spirit from this stormy world?_

She didn't understand why she was singing again. But her voice drifted mournfully through the wind. She couldn't continue, she was too busy choking on her tears. But someone from behind her took over.

_Sadly, oh Moyle, to thy winter-wave weeping,_

_Fate bids me languish long ages away;_

_Yet still in her darkness doth Erin lie sleeping,_

_Still doth the pure light its dawning delay._

Brooke wiped away her tears and finished the song.

_When will that day-star, mildly springing,_

_Warm our isle with peace and love?_

_When will heav'n, its sweet bell ringing,_

_Call my spirit to the fields above?_

Richard smiled at her and sat down at the river next to her.

"I miss her," she said.

"I'd be surprised if you didn't."

She dipped her feet into the cool water of the river and watched the swan swim away. Richard wiped away a tear that fell.

"You might not know this about me, but I lost my parents too."

Brooke looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with tears, "You did?"

"Yeah. It was a long time ago. I was only nine…"

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

"Look!"

"It's a bird!"

"It's a plane!"

"No… it's… I don't know what that thing is."

Everyone stops throwing fire at the Kraken to look up at the sky.

"It's a lion."

"Don't be stupid, lions don't fly."

"It's an eagle?"

"Eagles don't look like that."

The creature neared and Wally recognized it as a griffin. But griffins didn't exist. Well, neither did dragons for the longest time.

Were they going to have to fight a griffin _and_ the Kraken now?

"Be gone vile creature of the sea!" the griffin's voice boomed loudly.

The Kraken seemed scared away.

"Oh my goodness it can talk," Artemis deadpanned.

Megan almost fainted into Kaldur's arms, but then Conner ran over to her and grabbed her so she would faint into his arms instead. So she did.

Wally's jaw dropped open as he gestured to the spot the Kraken had sunk back into the sea, then to the griffin, then back.

"Thank you, o great one, for saving us," Kaldur respectfully said.

"Well it seems to me Poseidon wasn't doing a great job of keeping the Kraken under control, and I decided to check up on it. Obviously it was loose and causing damage," the griffin replied.

Roy and Wally were still in too much shock to speak, and instead glanced all over the place as if people would understand their strange grunting noises and gestures. It was like the Stone Age all over again.

"I do hope this will make up for the loss of your horse," the griffin continued, roaring into the air.

Everyone was confused until a sparkling Pegasus started flying towards them, neighing and tossing its mane.

Megan woke up and fainted again at the sheer beauty of the creature.

"Well, that about wraps it up. Have a safe journey," the griffin finishes, flying off into the sky.

"Did you just- did that-" Wally was unable to finish his sentence.

Artemis laughed at him and went up to examine the sparkling white Pegasus. Well, they wouldn't be able to travel very discreetly with it, but considering the fact that their group was already six people including a prince, foreign dignitaries, a knight, a squire, and an unfortunate girl with long blonde hair at least a hundred feet long, they couldn't travel very discreetly without the Pegasus.

"Look! There's Adon!" Wally finally regained speech, pointing at the shore.

It wasn't very far away.

"Looks like we made it in one piece," Artemis smiled.

"I think all this sea journeying has been too much of a hassle. Let's just ditch the ship at Adon and ride our horses across the rest of the way to the castle," Wally says.

Everyone nods in agreement. They didn't want to come into contact with any more crazy sea creatures.

* * *

><p><strong>So the song Brooke and Richard were singing? It's called Silent, O Moyle and it's actually very beautiful.<strong>

**If you want to hear it (I highly recommend it) go to YouTube and add [ /watch?v=cNUXhUKs54Q ] to the end of it. Or just search the name of the song.**

**Thanks again to YJ-Lover for all your help, and by the way, I love your picture! It's adorable!**

**I hope this chapter wasn't _too_ stupid. I mean, a random griffin did swoop in and save the day, and somehow decided to give a Pegasus to them, and they were throwing fire at a Kraken, and Megan was fainting and the dialogue was stupid... Well, if it was so stupid it was funny, then that's good enough for me :D**

**-Safirel**

**_Rowanfall_: Yay! I'm happy that it made you happy :D Look forward to seeing more of Brooke in this story. Let's just hope I keep writing her IC :P  
><strong>


	20. Love

**XIX. Love**

**Artemis/Wally/Roy/Conner/Kaldur/Megan**

They'd left Adon after stocking up on supplies, loading up their horses and leaving the already torn apart ship at dock.

Of course, everyone was staring at Megan's Pegasus, thinking their eyes were tricking them, or maybe it was the light, or something. Horses didn't normally have wings.

The good thing about the Pegasus was that Megan could fly up in the sky to see if they were on the right track. So they decided to give her the map and put her in charge of taking them to the right places.

"There's a bridge up ahead to cross the Blue River, and the next town is Veta!" she announced.

Everyone was just glad there was a town up ahead, and that the river had a bridge over it. They weren't very fond of crossing bodies of water after their experience with sirens and the Kraken. Plus they were tired, the trek from Adon to where they currently were had to be at least twelve miles. Their butts were hurting from galloping on their horses. Even if they had comfortable saddles, the comfort only lasted so long. Besides, it was getting dark.

When the group finally reached the bridge, they all looked at it warily, expecting some evil monster with sharp teeth to emerge out of the water and try to eat them.

And then they heard it. There were freaky low grumbling sounds coming from under the bridge, near the water!

Artemis widened her eyes and turned to look at Wally, as if telling him to protect her without actually saying anything out loud. He unsheathed his sword and watched the bridge.

The creature emerged. And it was… short. And hairy.

It started to laugh and pointed at the group, leaping back and forth from one foot to another, "Travelers, travelers, dare ye to approach this bridge? For it is guarded by Gnarlorf, the troll of Blue River! Great magic works in the palms of Gnarlorf's crusty hands, and travelers cannot escape!"

"What the-" Roy started, but Kaldur cut in, "We need to cross the bridge to get to Veta. We've traveled a long way in search of the prince, and-"

Gnarlorf raised his hands to silence Kaldur, "Gnarlorf will let ye pass. Just try."

The group looked at each other warily, all thinking the same thing, could they trust this crazy troll?

Finally Conner stepped forward, trying to step onto the bridge. But it was like there was an invisible force field keeping him from getting through.

Gnarlorf burst into hysterical laughter, dancing around on his hairy feet and chanting.

"Why don't we just wait here until sunlight? Maybe Gnarlorf will turn into stone and we can cross," Roy suggested.

Wally shook his head, "Who knows what that little troll will do while we're sleeping? And even if we don't sleep, we won't be able to stay awake for the sixteen miles to Veta. And he could probably just hide under his little bridge. And the magic will keep working. So, Gnarlorf, tell me what us meager travelers can do to please you and let us pass."

Gnarlorf thought for a moment and a small smile crept onto his face, "You must sacrifice a girl." Everyone glanced at each other, their gazes landing on Artemis and Megan.

Megan flew higher into the air as if it would protect her from the troll and his magic powers. Artemis made a shield in front of herself with her hair.

They started murmuring among themselves which girl to sacrifice, or if they could somehow avoid anything like that. They'd bonded during their trip. They didn't want to break that trust by voting one of the girls to her death.

"No, no, no, that's not how it shall work. I shall choose," Gnarlorf said, "And I choose that one." He pointed a crusty finger straight at Artemis.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard/Brooke**

"One for all, and all for one!" Oliver shouted, pointing his sword into the sky as he rode on his horse.

Bruce gave him a stoic look, deciding it was best to leave the knight to his antics. Clark grinned and joined in and the two started singing tales of a damsel in distress.

"Come on, sing along!" Oliver pleaded, trying to make a puppy dog face at Bruce.

Bruce just gave him a look, wondering why Oliver would even try.

But Richard grinned and joined in, singing loudly, and gave Brooke a look asking her to join in. So she rolled her eyes and started singing. The four of them sang loudly, and completely flat, mostly to annoy Bruce. But it was a classic song that they all knew, and they decided to start putting their own twist on it.

Clark started a bass line going, "Bum, bum, bum, bum." Oliver added his own "instrumentals" to the already going bass line, letting Richard take over the melody and leaving Brooke to harmonize in treble clef. They weren't the best accapella quartet group the kingdom had ever heard, but they were having the most fun. It took everything to keep singing and not burst out into hysterical laughter. They were still surprised Bruce kept such a straight face.

"Be quiet," Bruce suddenly hissed.

Everyone shushed up and looked around them, expecting to see something. They spotted someone in the distance, a very big someone. A giant, and he was wielding a giant club.

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Conner/Kaldur/Megan**

"Not her!" Wally exclaimed, panicking.

Artemis pulled apart her clumps of hair in front of her face as if opening a curtain. She quickly closed the curtain of hair again, seeing that everyone was staring straight at her.

"Argh!" Wally cried, charging at the troll. "Uh, uh, uh," Gnarlorf said, snapping. Wally's sword turned into a pillow. He threw it at the troll anyway.

"Wally! Calm down!" Kaldur said, "The troll told us we needed to sacrifice a girl…"

"EXACTLY!"

"…but he didn't specify a _human_ girl. We could find a rabbit in the forest or something."

"BUT I GOT TO CHOOSE!" Gnarlorf yelled suddenly.

"Anger issues much?" Roy stated.

"How 'bout we find you a lady troll friend?" Wally suggested.

"Lady trolls are rare."

"Too bad."

"Fine. But she stays here until you find one. And you only have until sunrise tomorrow."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me," Gnarlorf said, snapping his fingers to activate his magic.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard/Brooke**

"Now what?" Brooke asked.

"We fight it. It is the duty of a knight," Oliver said, completely serious.

"Wait, he's crying," Brooke said.

She started riding up to the giant. "Brooke wait!" Richard warned. But it was too late. She sat on her horse next to the giant, staring up at its massive head. Every teardrop was a waterfall.

"You okay?" she asked, concerned.

"No. I can't find my daughter."

He continued crying, not even caring that there was an unprotected human within reach. He was too upset to terrorize anyone at this point in time.

"We'll help you find her," Brooke promised.

Not too far away Bruce was shaking his head disapprovingly, "What has she gotten us into?"

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

The troll smelled bad and his house was by the river under a bridge. Somehow it smelled even worse than him. The dude lived next to a river, he should be able to get in more baths than he seemed to. She wished and wished that Wally would hurry up and get her out of here.

* * *

><p><strong>WallyRoy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan**

"Any idea what a lady troll looks like?" Wally asked. Everyone shook their heads.

"Well I'm just going to assume she'll be the only human-like creature out at night besides us."

"Is that a troll?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that's an ogre."

"Oh."

"What about that?"

"It's small, sparkly, and bright, it's a fairy."

"Ohh! Pretty!"

"Concentrate. Find a lady troll."

"Do you think she might live in that cave?"

"If it's a mine."

"It is."

"An abandoned one?"

"Yup."

"Let's go!"

The group ran into the mine, trampling on the carefully arranged stacks of jewels.

"Who dares enter my chamber?" a low feminine-ish voice boomed.

"It is I, the one who shall present you to your true love!" Wally cried.

Megan gave him a look to show he was being overly dramatic, but he didn't care.

"What? But male trolls are extremely rare."

"Funny, he said the same thing about lady trolls."

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Conner/Kaldur/Megan**

Artemis ran into Wally's arms when he came back, glad that he actually found lady troll. And also glad that he didn't smell like waste. He actually smelled pretty good for someone who'd been traveling for days.

When the two trolls laid eyes on each other, they instantly fell in love.

"I'm Gnarlorf."

"I'm Hashifisha."

They locked arms and skipped under the bridge happily.

And the unusual group of travelers went over the bridge. Finally.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard/Brooke**

When the group of five found a giant girl wandering around the fields, they figured she must be the giant's daughter. After all, it isn't everyday a five year old girl is bigger than Duke Bruce.

So they reunited the family.

Richard and Brooke felt a pang of bittersweet joy for the little girl for being with her father again, knowing they could never be with their parents again.

* * *

><p><strong>ArtemisWally/Roy/Conner/Kaldur/Megan**

The next morning, the group woke up and got out of the inn.

"I've stopped at this town before," Roy said, "With Conner and Kaldur."

"Oh, this is where your girlfriend lives, isn't it?" Conner teased Roy. Roy smacked him in the arm. Conner was not thwarted by the sudden act of violence, "Maybe we'll see her again?"

Roy rolled his eyes and they walked outside.

Before he knew it, he was enveloped in a hug. He almost attacked his assailant until he realized it was Jade.

Artemis was too shocked for words, and finally decided it was best to just stand there and let it sink in. Roy and her sister? Her sister and Roy? Were _together_?

"Artemis?" she exclaimed after she let go of Roy. It was his turn to be confused. She used the same arms she'd hugged Roy with to hug her little sister. But Artemis had to stop thinking that way, after all, her sister couldn't magically gain new arms to hug her with.

"Where have you been? I didn't know you knew Roy! Mom and Dad are going to be so happy! They've been so worried!"

Artemis didn't feel like replying to Jade. It still hadn't sunk in that Roy and Jade knew each other and liked each other. _In that way_.

* * *

><p><strong>So this is titled love because there is boygirl love and father/daughter love in it. Yay!**

**Bridge troll and the (almost) sacrificing of Artemis idea belongs to YJ-Lover. I swear this girl is the one planning the plot line behind this story :P**

**To Rowanfall: Oh yeah... planes don't exist. But Carrie Underwood exists! Which means... THIS IS THE FUTURE! But wait... it's the past... hm... just confusing myself now. I just realized that Artemis and Brooke are both singers in this universe. Lol.**

**Anyway, you guys know I LOVE hearing what you think :D So leave a review :)**

**-Safirel **


	21. Did You Forget?

**XX. Did You Forget?**

**Artemis/Wally/Roy/Conner/Kaldur/Megan**

Laurence and Paula Crock were overjoyed to see their youngest daughter return. They thanked Wally, Roy, Conner, Kaldur, and Megan for aiding their daughter's journey home. Mostly they were grateful that Wally found her in the tower in the first place, and they would have thanked Richard if he were there.

It was a little bit hard to believe the crazy tales of their journey that the kids told, each telling their own part of the story to form a whole big picture. Mostly Jade was amused how uncomfortable Roy looked when she told her parents he was her boyfriend.

But nevertheless, the teens told every detail of the story to Artemis's parents, leaving out the part where the two kissed on the ship.

Paula and Jade started to prepare a feast for the night, with the help of Megan. Roy, Conner, and Kaldur went to the town to buy some food and supplies, and Laurence went to tend to the farm.

Artemis would have helped cook, but her mother insisted that she needed rest.

She went to her room, Wally following behind her. She shared her room with her sister, so of course it wasn't completely the way she'd left it.

She plopped onto her bed and began to think about what this meant. She was finally home. So why did she feel sad? Was it because Wally and the others were departing for the castle tomorrow and she had to stay here?

"I'm going to miss you," she finally admits.

Wally forces a smile, "You could always come visit at the castle."

She knows she probably wouldn't be able to. It was a long journey and she didn't expect for there to ever be a reason she needed to go there. At least not a reason her parents would accept.

She threw her arms around him and he kissed her.

"Dinner's-" a cheerful voice started, but stopped upon entering the room.

It was Megan. She looked startled, and the couple was more or less as startled as she was. "I'm- I… you… her… what?" she stuttered. She took a deep breath and spoke coherently, "Wally, did you forget you're engaged to my princess? Linda's still waiting for you at the castle."

Artemis gaped at Megan. _Linda?_ Who was _Linda_? And Wally was _engaged_? How did she not know about this? She knew he was a prince, but she didn't know he was engaged to a princess already! And she couldn't believe she'd actually liked him.

Wally's face drained of all color. He actually had forgotten about Linda. And the whole journey thing was supposed to impress Linda, but he'd ended up forgetting about Linda! That was so stupid of him! And now Artemis probably hated him.

She got up and walked out of the room, not even glancing at him or Megan.

* * *

><p><strong>BruceOliver/Clark/Richard/Brooke**

As the group continued their journey to the castle, they also continued singing. Except for Bruce of course, who sat on his horse with a blank expression on his face.

And then the improbable happened. Bruce _sang_. In a resonating bass voice he _sang_.

Everyone stopped singing, too shocked to say anything.

He didn't stop until he was satisfied that the two knights and two kids weren't going to try annoying him again.

* * *

><p><strong>WallyRoy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan/Jade**

After a lengthy discussion the other knight with Mr. Crock, Roy and Jade had decided to get married. Which meant that she was going to journey with them to the castle to make preparations. Conner and Megan were also getting married when they got back to the castle, and of course, Wally was going to marry Linda.

On the journey to the castle, everyone was jovial and in high spirits, excited to get back to the castle. Everyone except Wally.

He was riding his horse a little farther away from the rest of the group, occupying himself with his thoughts.

He didn't love Linda. He loved Artemis. He knew that now, after they'd spent so much time together fighting dragons, sea monsters, evil kings… And Linda, she was a wonderful girl, but she wasn't Artemis.

He had to go back, he had to find Artemis and tell her. But she hadn't spoken to him since she told him she would miss him before Megan had reminded him of his engagement. He was powerless now. He wasn't going to force Artemis to return his feelings if she didn't want to.

As he rode into the castle town, the faces of the people and the stores he passed were a blur. It wasn't that the others didn't notice how downcast he was, they just didn't know what to tell him. After all, "It'll be okay" wasn't exactly a sufficient phrase for someone who was in such a bad mood. He'd probably just send a death glare towards the person who told him that and go back to staring at the back of his horse's head.

People were cheering for the return of the prince, and children were pointing at Megan's Pegasus.

But Wally kept riding towards the castle; towards the goal he'd had for the past two months.

"Hey _Wallace_, had a nice journey?" Richard smirked upon noticing his friend. Wally glanced at him, but didn't say anything. It bothered Richard not to be acknowledged, so he continued to stalk Wally and his horse.

Wally got off his horse and put it in the stable, unsaddling it and telling one of the stableboys to feed it.

He walked inside the castle, towards his bedchamber.

"Stop being all depressive and stuff and tell me what's going on," Richard prodded.

Wally slammed the door in his friend's face. Then he suddenly felt really bad and opened it up to see an angry Richard standing there.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do that," he apologized quickly. Richard didn't get any less mad, "Yeah it's a total accident that you're completely ignoring me and slammed a door in my face."

"Look, I'm having a bad day. Come inside and I'll tell you about it."

So Richard sighed and entered Wally's room, shutting the door behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

She was so _stupid_. The one boy she decided to fall in love with was engaged.

Maybe overprotection factored in. After all, he was the only boy she'd even spent time with besides Conner, Roy, Kaldur, and Richard. She'd spent the most time with Wally too, and he'd rescued her.

But still.

Why was she still thinking about him?

She glared at nothing in particular and finally got out of bed, walking to the kitchen where he mom was cooking.

"When's Jade's wedding?" she asked.

"In two weeks, why?"

"I was thinking I could go to the castle and help her get ready?" Artemis suggested.

Her mom frowned. She didn't want Artemis wandering off by herself. What if she got captured again?

"No Artemis, we'll go there in two weeks for her wedding, okay?"

That was too late. Wally would be married by then.

Artemis nodded and went back to her room, and back to glaring at nothing in particular.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, not my best chapter.<strong>

**I just wanted to upload this before I left for camp. I know I'm not consistent with my updating, but I won't be able to update anytime this week since I'm going on a church retreat thing with Youth Group. It's going to be fun, but no electronics! Which means no laptop and no writing! Unless I go old school and use a journal and a pen... I probably won't have time anyway.**

**So I know this isn't exactly as funny as my past chapters, but it'll get better in the next chapter.**

**Love,**

**-Safirel**

**(Before I go...)**

**_arbrick: _That's awesome! I'm really glad you like it and it makes me happy this might be your favorite story! I hope you continue to enjoy it :D**

**_wallyxartemisyjlover: _My second favorite pair of all time? Either Zutara (The Last Airbender) or CelesxLocke (Final Fantasy 6)! Oh wait... you probably meant from Young Justice... Hm... I'm pretty indifferent towards Supermartian, and I think RobinxZatanna is like an adorable middle school crush type of thing. I don't ship either one, but I don't dislike either one either. So my second favorite pair in YJ would be Green Arrow and Black Canary :D Didn't see that coming, did you? :P Yeah Spitfire tends to be the focus of my stories, but I'll diversify my stuff soon enough. And I can tell by your pen name that you must be a Spitfire shipper too! Maybe you'll like some of my other work :) And I love that you love my story! That makes me so happy!**

**_YJ-Lover: _I think I'll have to save some of those ideas for the next chapter :)**

**_Rowanfall: _Now I'm going to be constantly checking for new Valiant chapters :P**

**_afterfake13:_ Haha yeah, I tried to research trolls but I got bored and decided to write about magical trolls anyway.**

**_ilovejesus14: _Thank you :D and I like your pen name**

**_DxS4ever: _Oh thank you :3 I guess I didn't completely answer all of those questions, but the answers shall be revealed soon enough!**

**_Dextra2: _Yeah I need to work on my consistency... But here's another chapter :D**

**_cary99: _Thanks :D  
><strong>


	22. Wedding

**K guys, here's the epic conclusion to the story!**

**And, um, there might be one little line in here that Richard says that isn't totally kid appropriate. So let's just say this chapter is rated T even though the overall story is rated K+.**

**Sorry for the long wait, but I hope you guys like this :D**

* * *

><p><strong>XXI. Wedding<strong>

**Wally**

"You look great son," King Rudolph proclaimed as Wally stood facing the mirror in his best royal robes.

It was his wedding day, he was supposed to feel great. He even went on a journey for the girl, and the whole kingdom was having a fanfare for the announcement that the prince was finally getting married.

Wally adjusted the neckpiece on his costume and sat down in a wooden chair in his dressing room. It felt like a dungeon with its cold stone walls and floors, and the damp musty air. The only light came in from a tiny opening for a window on the other side of the room. Wally wished to be back in the countryside, journeying across the kingdom with his friends. With… Artemis.

"Time to get to the procession hall," King Rudolph said after conversing with a page.

Wally drifted out of the room after his father, like a ghost. He didn't have the courage to defy his father. But he didn't have the will to marry Linda anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

He sat in one of the pews in the cathedral, staring out at the filtered light streaming in through the stained glass windows decorated with ornate pictures.

"Hey," a soft voice greeted, seating herself beside him.

He turned and saw Brooke, "Hey."

The Cathedral was large, and this room seemed even larger than it did from the outside. Sure Richard had been here a couple of times already, but it still amazed him every time.

Megan sat at the piano, playing a few melody lines to warm up for when she played the wedding tune. More like a funeral march. Or at least, that's how Richard knew Wally would be thinking of it as.

Conner was sitting next to her on the piano bench, watching her as she played simple tunes. She was good, but she wasn't showing off at the moment, only warming up. So she didn't play any of the difficult things she knew just yet.

Every so often noblemen would enter the cathedral, in gossiping clumps of people.

They would seat themselves down in all their fine entourages and have their noses pointed stiffly up towards the high ceilings, as if they were still better than everyone else even seated.

Richard looked up to see Wally standing on the stage by the priest, having a conversation. They were probably discussing whatever he'd messed up on at the wedding rehearsal so he wouldn't mess it up again.

But Richard couldn't help but notice the vacantness of Wally's countenance, like he wasn't here and was in fact someplace far away dwelling in his anguish. He could be so melodramatic sometimes.

Technically, the wedding hadn't started yet, so Richard got up and left the pew, telling Brooke to save his spot. He walked over to the stage, quite unrefined with his hands in his pockets and his quick pace. The nobles glowered at him under their layers of powdered faces. He paid no heed to them.

"Please be seated while I go over the wedding ritual with the Prince," the priest said. Richard ignored him completely.

He pulled Wally over to the side, out of the hearing range of the glaring priest.

"Alright dude, what do you want? When he says 'speak now or forever hold your peace' I could stand up and make up some bizarre story about how Linda and I had it going on. Or even better, I could proclaim that we're homosexuals and horrify everyone. That should be enough to stop the wedding," Richard said.

Wally rolled his eyes, "You want them to persecute us? How about we do something less unorthodox? Like… throw a smoke bomb in the middle of the priest saying all that boring stuff and then I'll disappear!"

"Um, no time to create a smoke bomb anymore."

"Stink bomb? Didn't we have a secret stash of those behind the barn?"

"Stableboy discovered them and trashed 'em."

"…Release the rats?"

"The Duke would kill me. And what if they have diseases?"

"Forget it. There's no getting out of this one."

Richard sighed and went back to his seat next to Brooke. She noticed his expression and decided against saying anything to him. He tried to force a smile, but it came out more exasperated than he'd intended it to.

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

Princess Linda looked beautiful.

She looked almost like an angel with the contrast of her curly black hair against the stunning white dress.

The neck of it dipped kind of low, but it wasn't too extreme. The sleeves were completely made of lace, and a translucent lacy sheer skirt covered the solid poofy white skirt under it, creating an effect like Linda was effervescent.

Her hair pooled over her back in pretty ringlets, and a sparkling tiara was placed in the braids of black hair on top of her head. From it, emerged a veil that had diamonds or silver in it to create an even more magnificent effect.

She wore dangling diamond earrings and matching silver bracelets and a large white gold necklace encrusted with diamonds.

As she floated down the aisle with the bunch of white roses in her gloved hands, Wally wondered if he was really ready to marry a girl he didn't love. The answer was a resounding no.

As beautiful as she looked, he knew she wasn't the one he loved. All he could think about as she neared him was how beautiful Artemis would look in that gown.

Finally she reached the stage and stood across from him, her veil hiding her face.

* * *

><p><strong>Richard<strong>

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Brooke asked in a hushed voice.

Before the wedding had started, Richard decided to tell her about his plan.

It was a new plan this time, not anything he'd told Wally. And he was pretty sure it would work.

Brooke had assured him that she'd prepared everything as he'd asked, and so far, so good.

They watched as the couple recited their vows.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace," the priest said.

No one said anything.

"You may now kiss the bride."

Richard watched as Wally lifted up her veil to see what his expression would be.

"Well that was anti-climatic," Brooke whispered.

"Sh!"

"Look, the boy is more into this wedding than I am!" she teased.

Richard rolled his eyes and noticed a small smile on Wally's face. It had worked.

* * *

><p>Richard caught Wally after the wedding.<p>

"Told you I had a plan," he grinned.

Wally sighed, "You almost gave me a heart attack there Richard. I almost didn't proceed with the wedding, but then I saw her face under the veil. And then I saw you grinning like an idiot in the pews."

"So… you and your new wife gonna thank me or what?"

"Yeah, yeah, thanks. But where is Linda anyway?"

"I think she's in the garden… I'm not really sure though."

"I should probably go find her."

* * *

><p><strong>Wally<strong>

"Hi Linda."

"Hi Wallace."

Wally sat down next to Linda on the half-wall made of stone outside in the garden.

A blossoming tree drifted in the wind above them, showering them with flower petals every few minutes. Linda played with a blossom in her hand and didn't look up at Wally for a while.

"I wanted to thank you," he finally says after clearing his throat.

She glances up at him and offers a smile, "You're welcome. I mean, I don't want to get in the way of true love."

She drops the blossom and leans back, staring out over the reflective pond surrounded by carefully tended to vegetation. The sunlight shines the colors of the flowers on over the pond, creating a rainbow cascade of polychromatic colors shimmering on the surface of the water.

The sun drops some more.

"Shouldn't you be at your wedding reception?" Linda asks, playfully throwing petals at Wally.

"There wouldn't even be a reception if it weren't for you. You let another girl take your place in your wedding."

"Like I said, I'm not going to get in the way of true love."

"Well now I just need to find out how I'm going to explain this to my dad."

Linda laughed, "You could always tell him that I've secretly been a blonde this whole time."

"Yeah, that wig was a nice touch. Fooled me actually."

"But you knew it was her, right? Otherwise you wouldn't have gone through with the wedding?"

"Yeah. I knew it was her."

"…I'm going to leave for my kingdom tomorrow. It was nice knowing you Prince Wallace. I hope our countries can form an alliance," Linda finishes formally, standing up and smoothing out her skirt.

Wally hugged her gently, "It was nice knowing you too Princess Linda. Farewell."

"Farewell."

* * *

><p><strong>Artemis<strong>

She hadn't felt more beautiful in her life. Even if everyone thought she was really a princess and didn't know that the prince had just married some regular old farmgirl from the countryside of this kingdom, she didn't mind all the, "You're so pretty Princess Linda!"s. After all, it was the thought that counted.

It did take a haircut to get her hair to fit under the wig though, which somehow Brooke had found out of nowhere. Actually, Artemis knew it wasn't nowhere, but she decided she'd rather not ask why Brooke had a convenient black wig in a pretty hairstyle fit for a wedding.

She had met Brooke after sneaking off to the castle anyway and finding Richard. Richard met her outside the castle and devised some crazy plan that involved impersonation, and then had introduced her to Brooke. After all, Artemis was not going to let Richard into her dressing room to help her prepare for her wedding.

Richard did find Linda and explain everything that had happened to Linda, who graciously allowed Artemis to take her place as the bride.

So Brooke, Artemis, and Linda went to the dressing room to make the change.

And now, here she was. At a wedding reception and married to the love of her life. Who knew it would come to an ending like this?

She smiled as she saw Wally enter the room, and she walked up to him and took his hand. He smiled back at her, and then he kissed her.

* * *

><p><strong>THE END.<strong>

**But wait- it's not over. I know I said this is the last chapter, but I'm going to make an epilogue.**

**I mean, there's a prologue, there should be an epilogue too. Plus there's some stuff I didn't cover in this last chapter that shall be in the epilogue.**

**Anyway I can't thank you guys enough for all the favorites, reviews, and alerts!**

**I've enjoyed writing this crazy AU story with all it's twists and turns and thank you to all of you for contributing your suggestions and for your kind reviews that kept me going through the rest of this story.**

**To all of you who stuck with my story from the very beginning of my spawn of craziness- You are amazing. Thank you!**

**And also- I never thought a fairytale AU story would be this popular! But right now (4/27/12) it has been favorited 41 times and alerted 73 times. All thanks to you! (I just thought I might throw out some statistics to any of you who are curious.)**

**Love,**

** Safirel**

**(Before I go...)**

**_arbrick:_ Haha yes, but Wally's wedding turned out to be pretty fantastic, right? :)  
><strong>

**_cary99: _Thank you!  
><strong>

**_:_ I think you know the answer to that by now :)  
><strong>

**_Irenerb:_ I'm glad you love it :D  
><strong>

**_randommoneyz998:_ Oh thanks!**

**_YJ-Lover:_ Your ideas were great! And they added a needed perspective on the story that I didn't have. So thank you for all you've done for this story. I hope you like how it ended, and I'm glad you look forward to my fairytales of YJ in the future!  
><strong>

**_InTheShadowsofHeroes: _Haha yeah, Megan kinda did have to break the news to Wally about his previous engagement. I'm sure Richard tackled Wally to the ground and had him in a pin until vengeance was taken :)  
><strong>

**_wallyxartemisyjlover: _Thanks :)  
><strong>

**_Taren Hawk: _Aw thank you! ^^;; I kinda rushed that chapter, but you're right, I could've done more with description. Thanks for the advice!  
><strong>

**_Dextra2:_ Oh yeah :) check out Batman Sings on YouTube  
><strong>

**_Shojobaby: _She totally does!  
><strong>

**_DxS4ever: _That is probably the best thing an author could ever hear- that their writing is someone's favorite. Thank you for making my day :)  
><strong>

**_Rowanfall: _I think I even forgot Wally was engaged until brought it up a few chapters back! Haha ^^;; More Jade and Brooke in the epilogue since they weren't really in this one. I wanted to mostly focus on Wally and Artemis in this chapter. And Robin worked his way in the spotlight being the little troll he is, haha.  
><strong>

**_WaterBreather:_ Awh thank you!  
><strong>


	23. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Laurence and Paula Crock became the proud grandparents to two lovely young royal children. With Artemis now marrying into royalty, the whole family had protection from the dark agency Laurence used to work for, and they no longer had to worry about their daughter being kidnapped.

The tower in the woods was torn down since it was out of use. The tribe living in the forest continued to grow and thrive, and they were always welcome at the castle. Barbara and Richard eventually reunited, and the two married with Kalina as the maid of honor and Brooke as one of Barbara's bridesmaids. By now, Kalina and River were already married, but Richard was able to convince Barbara that they shouldn't get married tribal style. She agreed that walking down the aisle was a lot more romantic.

Brooke became part of the castle family, running around playing vigilante with The Duke by night, and brushing up on noble customs by day. She opened up an orphanage near the castle, and many of the nobles were more than happy to adopt these children. Barbara and Richard adopted a few of their own. She was Richard's adopted older sister, and she acted like it too. The job required some teasing, embarrassing, and sisterly loving, and she excelled at all three.

Brooke became good friends with both Jade and the now Queen Artemis, taking care of Jade and Roy's daughter and Wally and Artemis's two children on various occasions. Jade and Roy's marriage was around the same time as Conner and Megan's, and they all lived in the nearby castle town.

Kaldur and Brooke grew close, and he considered courting her, but she played hard-to-get. He visited often as a foreign dignitary, and the two kingdoms formed a strong alliance.

Princess Linda married an esteemed prince, but she remained good friends with Prince Wally, later King Wally.

King Eobard was taken down after invading Wally's kingdom. Wally, along with his alliances with Kaldur and Linda's kingdoms, fought off the invasion and took down the vile king, splitting the land of the kingdom between them. The people of that kingdom were no longer oppressed, and lived in a happy peacefulness over the land.

Puppy grew up and became Dog, since Conner found it an inadequate name to call the great, strong Dane 'Puppy' after he grew up. Dog had a litter of beautiful puppies with a pretty Dane from the village. He became a great father.

Sir Clark eventually married Lois and took responsibility for Conner, who became a courageous knight. He sometimes went on expeditions with Wally, Artemis, Roy, and Richard, just for old times sake.

Sir Oliver proposed to Lady Dinah in his flamboyant manner, and she happily accepted.

The land was peaceful at last. There were no more dragons, and no more witches, and Richard would never forget the part Zatanna had played in this. So when Wally constructed an Institute of History for the kingdom, they had agreed to name one of the wings after Zatanna. Although not much was known about her, she became a famous figure in history.

Huntress was never to be seen again by Richard, although he'd heard stories of her rare appearances in public. Rumor had it that she'd taken leading crime control into her own hands, which wasn't actually so bad, although vigilantes were still illegal. But hey, The Duke himself was part of it.

The blacksmith down in the dragon village began to profit greatly by selling replicas of Queen Artemis's arrows she'd used to kill the dragon, and replicas of Kind Wally's sword he'd used to finish the dragon.

Even Gnalorf and Hashifisha the trolls had a happy ending, starting a little troll family under the bridge. They occasionally terrorized people as a family activity, but they never actually threatened the lives of anyone anymore. It was just funny for them to watch people scream in fear and run off.

Wally's father didn't actually die, he just passed the title of King down to Wally now that he was old and decided to spend his days eating the cook's great food and playing with his grandchildren.

Pegasus stayed with Megan, loyal to her as long as the Griffin required it of him. And the Griffin?

He watched over the kingdom and protected it from his home in the clouds. Although it wasn't a perfect kingdom, the people still sang and danced since they knew they were safe and happy. And The Griffin could finally rest, for he knew that there wouldn't be anymore problems in the kingdom for a long, long time.

**The End.**

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><p><strong>Thank you guys so much for reading this story! I'm really glad you liked it and I really am happy that you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!<strong>

**Well it's been a wonderful journey!**

**Love, Safirel**

**(Before I go...)**

**Irenerb: Thanks!**

**randommonkeyz998: Thank you!**

**DxS4ever: You're welcome :) and I love that you loved it!**

**Taren Hawk: Oh thanks! That really means a lot to me :)**

**Dextra2: Haha that was pretty fun to write**

**cary99: Thanks!**

**: Haha yeah, that's why I decided to wrap it up like this. I have a prologue, might as well do an epilogue too!**

**InTheShadowsOfHeroes: Haha I know right? And it's okay. I'm glad you've been enjoying this story!**

**Rowanfall: He totally is. Awh, well I guess Wally could always make an exception in the law for his love :) Ahh I love Lord of the Rings! And you're welcome. Thanks for all the awesome reviews, they really mean a lot to me :)**


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